Call of the Wild

So I have been taking Sheridan to the park while Rowan is in therapy, and been trying to make the most of our time. I taught him that the above black bird was a grackle, and that it could be distinguished from crows because it has yellow eyes while a crow has black ones. The Mallard in the background, and the female Mallard below will be the object of next weeks lesson. I'm taking pictures and running to the internet to help me identify these birds so I can point them out and teach them to the boy.

Above is one of Sheridan's favorite ducks. It is called a Muscovy duck. At first glance it has a somewhat vulture appearance, but it certainly got friendly when Sheridan broke out the french fries the first time he fed them. He was practically hand feeding the thing.

But low and behold...a Black Vulture dropped in to pay a visit, much to the Mallard family's dismay, so Sheridan got to see some carrion bird action after all. It wasn't a Turkey Vulture, which would have looked more like a Muscovy Duck than this fellow, but it was cool.

Now I have absolutely no idea what breed of goose or waterfowl the below pictured bird is. I have scoured the intarwebs to no avail, so if anybody out there recognizes these things please give me a heads up.

Anyways, I'm learning too.

And Sheridan is learning that ducks can get a little too friendly when you wave a popcorn bag in front of them.

But once he climbed safely atop the bench, the festivities resumed.



 Needless to say, his audience was most appreciative. He was Mr. Popularity, at least for a while. And if we keep visiting this park we're going to end up with a bunch of twenty pound ducks with Type 2 diabetes huffing and puffing around. So not only am I not getting enough writing done, but I've got a pending plague of duck obesity on my conscience.

It ain't easy folks.