Pack-o-Mallards

*image from http://www.laketemplene.org/

Do you know that I saw about fifty Mallard ducks this weekend? To be honest, there might've been sixty of the green-headed, webbed-footed little guys. A regular Mallard-fest, I tell you! And all of them shacked up at this little pond that's got a running waterfall! Whoa to nature, right? Well, not exactly. See, though an unfrozen bath is hard to come by during Coloradan winter-times, I knew there was more than meets the eye to this brood of ducks. So here's how it went down. While out jogging this past weekend, having just rounded a corner, I saw all these Mallards crowding around and flitting about, squawking (which I had to look up the spelling of, mind you) their little green heads off, right? Well, I kinda slowed down (as if I could possibly run at a slower pace and not be walking) to check out the scene a little better, cause I mean, never have I ever seen that many ducks in one sitting! So I slow down enough to see this old man right smack dab in the middle of all the commotion. He's got this large plastic bag in his hand from which he's throwing out chunk of bread after chunk of bread. Well, if that's not the quickest way to make friends! Breaking bread with them! Jesus taught him that, I said to myself (well, not right then, but later when I thought of it and realized how genius it was). It was then, watching somewhere between fifty and sixty Mallards swarm one little old man, that I put two and two together. It's not the above-freezing temperature of the water that kept them here through winter, or the pond's location really (as we're talking about the middle of Aurora), but rather it's the pond's human-visitor that keeps the duckies put. Can I blame the old man for keeping the birds here past their fly-South date? Well, no, cause I'd probably have done the same thing had I been carrying a bag-o-bread on my run. But also no because I could tell those colorful-feathered noise-boxes were the old man's friends...and he was their friend, too. (Hell, if someone was feeding YOU bread everyday, wouldn't YOU stick around?). The important thing is, I saw something beautiful, and had I not gotten my lazy butt outside, I might not have seen it. (Although there is also another, slightly less important, point--sourdough bread wins hearts...including mine. I very well may have to fight a birdie or two for a taste next time).

What's something beautiful you've seen outside recently?