H.R. Waller
Date: 18 September, 2008
Time: 0948
Weather: Overcast, 61 degrees
Location: Near the Millstream, with the library directly across the sidewalk behind me, facing Goudy.
Today is the first cool day we've had so far, and even though it is still early in the morning, I can tell it's not going to be another sweltering afternoon. The sky is all one white-grey color, and the campus looks, feels and acts in a subtle, but still completely different way. Things seems to move slower. Although I love the sunshine, I feel more relaxed and alert right now than I have thus far on campus. There are about 20 ducks in the river in front of me as I sit leaned against a tree. Two mallards a male and female, seem to be enjoying a liesurely float in front of me. The male just leaned over and touched the female on the neck, a gesture that looked like a kiss. The female then let out a soft, high pitched quack. The male swam a near perfect circle around her. She got up on her rear end, body almost totally vertical and flapped her wings before ducking back down and inverting her body, tail up out of the water. It looked very playful. What were those two doing? Were they playing, fighting, or communicating? Several other ducks a way down swim liesurely through the river, while many more sit on the bank sleeping. Two ducks are walking around on the grass, occasionally dipping their headsto the ground as if eating bugs. A single duck sits huddled down on the grass about 10 meters away from the larger mass of activity. Why are some ducks antisocial?
Picture courtesy of Google Images.
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