Sitting Ducks

I'm a night bird who very rarely gets up early so it was a treat to see the sun rise on Thursday.

With a flask of tea, The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Europe and an ancient pair of binoculars in my backpack, I joined Lon and Kim on one of their regular trips to count migratory birds. 

As Autumn mornings go, it couldn't have been bettered; watching the steam rising from the water and mingling with the mist was quite magical but it very soon became apparent that we weren't the only ones looking for ducks.

We met National Park rangers on our way who warned us that there were fifteen hunting parties around the creek and lake, that they all had official permits and were bagging their self-regulated quota of duck. 

Decoy ducks had us fooled for a few minutes

So, apart from the occasional grebe, the only ducks to be counted were plastic, the others were staying out of shooting and binocular range and any survey had to be abandoned.

But on an impromptu ramble through the undergrowth, I found a this quill, so we could at least record that porcupines were around.

For those of you with busy lives, here is 17 seconds of tranquility from S. W. Turkey.