While I was putting up the deer post, a huge flock of Mallard ducks flew into our new feeding area under the plant bench.

It was pretty dark, but I managed 5 shots. All are blurry to some extent because of the movement, and low light affecting the shutter speed.

We had a slight thaw today, from Zero temps, to 40 degrees F. now. and it exposed some seed that was below in the ice.

We have a mated pair who stay with us all spring, in the yard. But I have never seen this many at one time like today.

It is difficult to imagine any seed would be left over... we put only one little can out each day...so undesireable rodents won't be attracted at night. We have been watching the squirrels doing the mating chases for the last 2 days too. The raccoons start with that with the attendant screaming in Feb. usually.

It is now dark, and some of the ducks are still here! Amazing.
They must be really hungry! We've been unable to count them accurately... but 20-30 seems like a good estimate.

Wow, that is so incredible for me to see.

It's so horribly hot and humid here I am melting again today and I just see those photos and they look so inviting and cold. Not inviting to most people I know who live in it of course.

When I first saw falling snow (that was in the Pacific North West) I found it so unbelievably beautiful that I ran around out in it calling "snow! Snow! Snow!". Laughing thinking at those times. Everyone else was inside thinking I guess about how much snow they needed to move the next day or how much to move to get the car on the road etc. They thought I was a little strange you know.
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I love those photos. I like that they're a little blurred. It makes them look as if they were painted. Beautiful composition.

Thanks, Lara. Alot of my photos are "artistically" blurred! I take them thru our ancient vintage windows that are wavy.
Hubby likes the effects too.

Here is one with a little more light...just doves, and a little red
squirrel in the flower pot. He showed up about a week ago. He is much smaller than the other squirrels. So we have 4 varieties of them now. There are some sparrows there and maybe a junco or two (these are difficult to see on the ground as they are dark and small). The juncos usually come AFTER the bird herd leaves. They don't like commotion. The juncos are only here in cold weather, and move North in spring. They are gray and white or buff, and do a little dance in the snow with their feet to expose seeds. They are the only bird we see do this.

This photo shows only about a third as many as we usually get at this bench feeder. The presence of the hawks seem to decrease the numbers some days.

I was thinking last night about all the bird flu posts in our HNH section here. I wonder if these ducks carry it too? I am having hubby do some careful measures to not track anything in the house (more so than usual). He is grumpy about that, so far.

Looks like the ducks were a one time event...as they have not
returned since the first night.

It remains a bit early for Mr. and Mrs. Quack Quack who take up residence in spring here.