The fourth (almost) dam to be exact. Jon spied 7 mallard ducklings yesterday and this specimen, a western Grebe.
This isn’t our photo, but that’s our fella. We’ll get the photographers out soon. I’m happy to see the ducklings again this year, and wondered when they’d appear. One of the treats last year was seeing how much more protected family numbers were by the beaver dams. Instead of seeing a progressive attrition (one day 8 baby ducks, then five, then three) we saw family ranks that kept their numbers until maturity. The dams make a more protected habitat, and this year the would have been 4 times as protected, although the city interfered with the progress by removing vegetation and installing sheetpile. The beavers did what they could to mitigate.
Still, baby ducks are always a good thing.
