Some peace and quiet for a change.

Wow, oh wow, what a wonderful morning. It was cool, for sure, but the sky was clear as a bell, and the air was dead calm. Combine that with the reduction in car and construction noise that a Saturday morning brings, and I could hear a leaf drop. It was magical.

At the pond, the little hooded merganser seemed to be enjoying the peace and quiet as much as I was.

I was even able finally to capture a presentable image of the resident muskrat nibbling on its breakfast at the far water’s edge.

I didn’t see the wood duck, however, so I continued on to the river with the hope that I might see him later. There were already anglers on the water, but that did not seem to deter this great blue heron waiting for something tasty to go up or down the falls.

Our great horned owl was missing again this morning, but as I continued up stream, I inadvertently roused this buck from his slumbers. It froze like that as long as I held still, but I couldn’t keep that up all day, …

and I eventually turned to continue north, at which point, he bolted across the river to the island.

At the far north end, there were the usual few Canada geese, mallards, and a couple more herons. The first happy surprise was when a belted kingfisher arrived and let me capture this portrait. With any luck, we’ll see him on-and-off all winter long.

The second happy surprise was when a merlin magically appeared over the northern island. I had checked those trees plenty of times already this morning, but when I looked up from taking the kingfisher picture, there was the merlin. Ta da!

On my way back south, I found a slew of goldfinches, now all in their subdued winter coats, feasting on seeds from some weed.

Here’s a closer look.

Back at the pond, the wood duck did reappear.

This mallard hen ignored me as I sat down on the west lawn.

This mallard drake drifted by, but he didn’t take his eye off me.

And Woody got to work on rustling up its breakfast. I also saw it bring up at least three tadpoles, and I did confirm that “bullfrog tadpoles can take up to two years to transform into frogs“, but the crayfish bravely flashing “V” for victory in the face of such terrible odds just looks so much more dramatic.

Finally, tranquility returned, and I went home.