Well, Louise has finally gotten her feet wet in Maine. I've pretty much been sick in bed since she arrived almost 2 weeks ago. It's been nothing serious, but a cough, congestion, fever off and on, and it just wouldn't quit. Every time I thought I had it licked it would give me another hard kick.
Anyway, I finally felt better this afternoon, so I took Louise out for a short jaunt at my across the street duck spot. This is a completely undeveloped pond, surrounded by land owned by two land trusts, with guaranteed public access forever. It's about a half mile walk in, which cuts down on the crowd considerably.
It was almost ducky when I headed down the trail--spitting rain, a little breeze. Louise seemed happy to be out of her box, but a little miffed at being forced to spend the afternoon with a bunch of plastic decoys. (Sorry, I don't haul a rig of cork decoys a half mile . . . .)
To make her feel better, we gave her her own seat in the boat.
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As you can see, what little breeze there was when I left the truck was long gone--never to return.
As we launched the canoe I put up a group of about 20 ring necks, and then a couple of pairs of mallards as we paddled over to the blind. Sometimes those birds will come right back within 20 minutes or so, but it was not to be today.
Louise remained a little haughty, but she finally agreed to share space with her plastic cousins. She may have been a little shy, what with being the only female diver in the bunch.
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She settled in for the afternoon after a while.
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Unfortunately, no ducks were harmed in the making of this film. The only ducks I saw all afternoon were a pair of mallards. They came in just as I had my last coughing fit. At first I think they were attracted by my wheezing, which probably sounds better than when I try to call, but my upper body jerking around flared them pretty well. Louise was not impressed with my skills.
Anyway, I'm feeling much better now, and we'll give it another shot in the morning and again on Saturday. Monday morning our south zone reopens, and I have a couple of better prospects to show Louise before she heads south. One of them has hosted a big flock of scaup recently, so she may enjoy the company a little better over there.
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