I went down to the promenade today in hopes of finding Yellow Warblers
and some early ducklings. Saw instead a Yellow-rumped Warber--no
ducklings--and a soap opera.

First, a male and female Mallard were swimming by. The female quacked
and quacked and quacked nonstop as she splashed around in the water.
They always sound irritated when they quack, but I wondered why she was being
so vocal and sounding highly annoyed. It turned out that the male was 
not her mate.
When her mate finally showed up (I imagine she had words for him later), he
beat up on the other male and chased him away. The pair then flew into
the park (where a Pileated Woodpecker was also being highly vocal).

Afterwards I saw two house sparrows mating on top of the food stand.
The male did a little mating dance, hopping behind the female from side
to side, chirping and fluffing his feathers. Then he mounted her for all of
three seconds, hopped off, did his little dance, mounted her--the whole
routine about four times, during which she stood there with her rump
raised, watching the scenery. When he tried a fifth time, though, she
chirped and flew away. I guess enough was enough.

Two Canada Geese were grazing farther down the promenade.
They seemed to like dandelion flowers and leaves. I watched them
for a few minutes, and then the watch goose of the pair began to
call "Erp...Erp...ERP....ERP!!!" Then it honked out an alarm and all the geese
took off. The danger turned out to be a white chihuahua wearing a pink sweater.

I was exceedingly distressed to see how filthy the water is there, covered with
a film of gas and/or oil, and dumping black goo all over the beach.
I've never seen it so bad, except after Isabel. I hope it's just temporary,
a result of all the junk coming downriver through Conowingo Dam, but still,
what a nasty place to be a duck right now.

--Pat

Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD | 
"The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards
and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods.
More than any other thing that pertains to the body
it partakes of the nature of the divine." --Plato