Pondering Penelope’s Passing
Noel Laflin
5-11-15
Penelope, a domesticated
white duck bearing a strong resemblance to its Aflac counterpart, is no more.
I got the lowdown on her disappearance
while walking the neighborhood watering hole just this morning. Looks to be an inside job by hungry coyotes,
or so one might surmise after viewing the remains of nothing but white feathers
scattered on the north shore of our small pond.
Penelope, as named by a
couple of the neighborhood daily duck feeders, was dropped off at the old catch
basin just a few months back. A woman later
confessed that she had done so in order to save the duck from her dog.
Rather than bonding with the
other three domesticated birds at the south end of the pond, Penelope chose to
be a loner at the opposite shore, keeping company only with the wild mallards,
coots and occasional turtle.
But, she was well-fed and
fairly fond of humans. We hikers,
bikers, and joggers got quite used to seeing her close to the chain link fence
as we strode, rode or whizzed on by; Penelope was always on the lookout for another meal of
seed, bread, bagels or mealy worms as she would eye us through the fence. Small children loved to feed her by hand.
However, late last week she just
disappeared one night– leaving only pure white feathers behind by early
morning.
Four of us were lamenting her
loss as we leaned against the fence trading duck, geese, coot, turtle, coyote,
and owl information this morning.
Swimming silently up to
shore, a pair of mallards paddled past us and nosed off into the underbrush.
The female saddled up to a
nest containing six eggs, and sat herself down.
Her mate stood guard as sentry.
I’m hoping the coyotes and
owls stay clear of the south shore for a while, as four of us look forward to
becoming godparents to a new brood of ducklings soon.
As we were breaking up to go
our separate ways, a beautiful white egret, followed closely by its equally
beautiful, miniature offspring passed gracefully in flight overhead.
No comments:
Post a Comment