Our drawings this week remind me that local duck and geese populations fluctuate with the seasons.
On the Delaware River, in shallows near the Damascus-Cochecton bridge, hundreds of Canada Geese generally gather in early autumn before taking wing in October and November. And a few hardy ones will stick it out until ice forms.
Some perch on gravel bars or poise on rocks in mid-river, as depicted in Annalyse Holbert’s drawing (above).
Mallard ducks often migrate locally – over-wintering in this area, but moving from ponds and creeks to waters less likely to freeze.
A case in point is a pocket of muddy water in the old Delaware and Hudson Canal near Honesdale. For several weeks, in mid-October, a mixed flock of male and female mallards settled there, splashing, feeding and generally enjoying themselves.
But it was a stop-over en route to more stable waters. Earlier migrants from the canal included painted turtles and a huge “snapper,” who loved to bask on a log in the summer light.
I once discovered a frayed snake skin in the recess of a canal wall – shed by a resourceful blacksnake before it, too, moved on.
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Our drawings this week remind me that local duck and geese populations fluctuate with the seasons.
On the Delaware River, in shallows near the Damascus-Cochecton bridge, hundreds of Canada Geese generally gather in early autumn before taking wing in October and November. And a few hardy ones will stick it out until ice forms.
Some perch on gravel bars or poise on rocks in mid-river, as depicted in Annalyse Holbert’s drawing (above).
Mallard ducks often migrate locally – over-wintering in this area, but moving from ponds and creeks to waters less likely to freeze.
A case in point is a pocket of muddy water in the old Delaware and Hudson Canal near Honesdale. For several weeks, in mid-October, a mixed flock of male and female mallards settled there, splashing, feeding and generally enjoying themselves.
But it was a stop-over en route to more stable waters. Earlier migrants from the canal included painted turtles and a huge “snapper,” who loved to bask on a log in the summer light.
I once discovered a frayed snake skin in the recess of a canal wall – shed by a resourceful blacksnake before it, too, moved on.
