Chirps and Cheeps

My friend, Gale, reported six Trumpeter Swans down in Fredonia at a little pond behind a Walmart shopping store.  It's amazing the different species this little pond has attracted over the years.  Gale mentioned on her Instagram account (@novembergale) that the water hardly ever freezes due to the road salt that gets kicked into it.  It's a nice attractant to waterfowl - and this day, SIX Trumpeter Swans!  I just had to see these large and magnificent beauties.  And happily, they were still there when I arrived.

I was surprised at the number of American Black Ducks that were lined up and sleeping along the edge of the pond.  I counted nearly twenty of them.  I had just about the same number out in a cornfield where I stopped the other day on my way to my folks' house.  The cornfield hosted hundreds of Canada Geese and Mallards as well as the black ducks and, to my surprise, a few Northern Pintail already.

On my way home from Dunkirk, I took a long, rural route and was glad to find some Horned Larks out in a field.  They were quite close, actually, nipping at the seed heads of some weeds growing at the roadside edge of a farm field.  There were only a couple dozen of them, but they're always a nice bird to see!