April 27th - The ritual is still going on...this time it was the Mallards. While cleaning the window I decided to take a picture of the Mallards who were in the water taking a snooze by the bank. Big surprise...a midday photo op, and on a sunny day at that! The first seven were all taken within one minute, the last two were shot seven minutes later, right before they left.
This evening they returned, along with a Woodie pair and a single Woodie drake...no pics but it was fun to watch.

April 23rd - Big events today...four Wood Duck drakes showed up two times in the am with one hen. What a commotion as they were chasing each other and her in the pond and up the hill! I only managed one picture of one of the drakes the 1st time, lots of pictures the 2nd visit. In all they were only here for about an hour and a half.

Around 6 pm, two pair of Wood Ducks showed up...the hens were making a lot of noise, and again drakes were chasing each other and the hens all over. They left, and an hour later one woodie pair and a hen came back and put on quite a show!...the one hen may never have left, but she surely was squealing loudly as all the rest was going on!
...BTW, the Mallard pair were also here, and other than chasing the Woodies when they came too close to where they were dabbling, they seemed to ignore the whole process.

I took many pictures this day and have selected 24 to upload that will best depict todays events. Four have been artistically rendered...dealing with motion and low light again. :)

Please click on a thumbnail for a larger view