Mallard Ducks seen in Las Vegas Desert!

This afternoon Josh and I decided to take a quick walk up to our neighborhood park. As we got there Josh caught sight of two ducks under the pathwalk bridge. They were a male and female that looked like those in this picture. I didn't have our camera with us so found this picture online when we came home to show what they looked like. We stopped to observe them and as we did they came out to greet us. I was amazed at how close they were willing to get to us and yet not come within reaching distance. After checking us out they waddled off, and yes ducks really do waddle lol, and we followed at a reasonable distance away. They went to the opposite pathwalk bridge taking their time in their meanderings to get there to preen their feathers. Josh interestingly thought that the female, which is the less colorful one, was the prettier of the two. As the male preened his feathers we caught sight of a beautiful purple patch on the inside of his wings. The two waddled some more and then without warning took to flight. It was such an incredible sight. Josh and I were both flabbergasted that none of the other people who happened by the ducks seemed very interested. We think the ducks probably are from the golf course which is adjacent to the park. We both put entries about the ducks in our nature journals which I had luckily thought to bring.

It was a wonderful day of stress free learning both out in nature with the ducks and having our Tuesday teatime reading the poetry of Robert Frost to celebrate his birthday which was this past Saturday. We both picked a poem from the book Poetry for Young People - Robert Frost choosing one from the Poems of Spring section. I also read a section from a biography I had from the library which told about how Frost and his wife taught their children at home until they were 10 years old. Very interesting homeschooling lives they led. The book is A Restless Spirit, The Story of Robert Frost by Natalie S. Bober. While eating our chocolate chip scones and drinking our Earl Grey Green tea I also read from Shakespeare's Spy by Gary Blackwood. We are almost to the end of the book and not wanting to finish in one way because this is the last of the series. This is a fantastic series that has really captured Josh's interest and imagination.