The ‘hounds of gabriel’ is an ancient phrase referring to the bay and flap of migrating geese overhead – their heavenly location suggesting they belong to the Archangel Gabriel. The older term is ‘ratchets’, (ratchet being a hound that hunts by scent.) I mention it because today was a ‘fowl’ morning for beaver watching. A creek sans castor, but crowded with paired up ducks making their survey of the best nesting areas. From the right came the honks of thirty geese in V’d flight and to the left, from the hills, came an unmistakable ‘gobble’. It’s the first time I have heard turkeys from the dam site, but at one point they were close enough to echo off the county building. What I wouldn’t give for that picture!
I am told that the wood duck boxes have been inspected and that two have ‘bowls’ which are initial pre-nests that indicate a prospective buyer is thinking about closing escrow. All in all we should have a population explosion of baby ducks this year. I can’t wait.
