This afternoon, while biking along the Capital Crescent Trail alongside the C&O Canal towpath near Fletcher's Boat House, I spotted what my jiz told me was a pair of Canada geese with some goslings up ahead on the towpath.  Wait a minute, what's wrong with this picture?  It's late October, that's what's wrong!

As I got closer the goslings resolved themselves into several Wood Ducks, all males.  Then as I came abreast of the group, the geese stretched out their necks and eyed me warily, while the woodies paid no heed at all.  This was exactly the behavior I've seen hundreds of times in the spring when approaching a family of geese and their young charges.

I wondered if the young ducks might have somehow taken to the geese as surrogate parents, and the geese, acting on instinct, accepted them.  Whatever the reason, it was so odd that I thought it would be of interest here.

-- Dave Winer, Bethesda