Ducks in my pond

I spied my daughter's ducks taking a bath in my pond this morning and decided to take a few pictures. Seemed the right thing to do to convert the pictures to black and white. Gee I had a shower this morning and couldn't get the water hot enough!!! Glad I am not a duck. When they are done bathing they will snooze on the ice. Sometimes a few of their feathers freeze to the ice and are left behind when they return home.

Speaking of ducks and ice, a few weeks ago during our last cold spell I still had the waterfall running. There was a huge chunk of ice on the bottom stone and the surface of the pond was completely frozen over. I wasn't aware but the ice jam had caused considerable water to drain out of the pond. So much so it had lowered the water level by about a foot. Carolyn heard the ducks raising a ruckus but could only see two of them. I bundled up to check it out and could see one duck under the ice frantically trying to get out. There was only one thing I could do and that was to break the ice to let her out. The danger I saw was the collapsing ice might fall in a large chunk trapping her underneath. I gave the center of the ice a whack and sure enough it broke off in a single huge chunk. Ms duck still trapped under the ice went to the bottom of the pond and stayed there. I quickly gave the ice another whack but the center was much thicker than the edges and nothing happened. So I went for a coffee and to warm up and think what I should do next....no that is another story.... I quickly calculated where to break the ice and the second whack was successful. Ms duck was quickly reunited with her family scolding me all the time for being so careless. Sadly I think I learned more from this than she did.