TGAW

Stopped by the Virginia Tech Duck Pond after lunch today.  It’s not the most pretty sight, but the animals are adapting.  Nearby pools of water remain in tact for the ducks.  A heron seemed to rather enjoy the easy hunting in the shallow waters.  Blackbirds congregated in a mini stream that ran through what remains of the pond.  For some ducks, it is business as usual as they swarmed around a family with bread. 

Here’s a comparison shot between last Friday and today.  You’ll have to look in the background– the foreground is a mini-pond that is in tact:

Duck Pond June 22, 2007

Duck Pond June 27, 2007

As expected, there was a lot of debris on the bottom.  Golf balls, beer cans, barrells, bottles, cups.  Traffic cones seemed to be pretty popular as well.  I saw at least three.  At one point, the heron found one half submerged traffic cone to be a convenient perch.

Overview of the pond

Two ducks cross the barren landscape

Blackbirds congregate at some remaining water

Barrells and trash in the mud

A worker boats in remaining water

Heron with a traffic cone

Lines of police cars on the grass

More Drained Duck Pond pictures can be found on my Flickr site.

Wow.  Looks like it was good little Gwyn and I visited the Virginia Tech Duck Pond when we did.  Today, the Duck Pond started getting drained as part of the state investigation of the Virginia Tech shooting.  This news may explain why I spotted a Virginia State Underwater Search and Rescue Team truck on 460 today.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/breaking/wb/122095 

Anyway, I don’t know what they are hoping to find, but I bet they come across a lot of disgusting surprises in there.  My sophomore year of college I was feeding the ducks when my class ring fell into the water.  I had to get in and actually submerge my head underwater to retrieve it.  The next week…. I got mono.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  But I bet the various organisms in that water didn’t help my immune system! 

Virginia Tech Duck Pond…with water

After the investigation, the school is going to do some repairs to the pond.  It could remain drained for several weeks.  You know what that means?  I’m going to be under an awful lot of pressure to actually finish the bread I buy.  

Friday afternoon, I got to babysit little two and a half year old Gwyn.  After dinner, I took her to the Virginia Tech Duck Pond.  Here are some highlights and pictures from our adventure.

“EAT! EAT!”
I brought some old bread with us and Gwyn used it to feed a fleet of mallards.  At first she threw out a whole slice of bread out there (the ducks could not believe their eyes), but after that, she was very good at tearing off little pieces.  Once she got than hang of it, Gwyn promoted herself supervisor of the operation.  “More,” she’d tell me when she was out of bread.  And just in case the ducks could not figure out their role, after she threw the bread little Gwyn would order, “EAT! EAT!”

A duck waits for Gwyn to part with the bread

Gwyn gets ready to ration off another piece of bread

Hungry ducks keep their eyes on the prize

“Another One”
Most of what Gwyn says, I can’t quite decipher, so I fake it at times.  “Uh huh”, “Cool”, “Yeah, nice!”, “Neat!”.  At one point she pointed to a wall and kept repeating a phrase.  I ran through all my generic responses before I realized- she was saying, “I need help.”  She wanted to be lifted up so she could see over the wall.  Well, there was one moment where what she said was very clear.  We ran across a weird duck. 

“Wow, look at that weird duck!” I said, “I’m going to take a picture.” 

And so I did:

Weird Duck #1

As I fiddled with auto-focus and took the picture, Gwyn very clearly said, “Another one!” and pointed.  Sure enough, there was another very weird duck.

Weird Duck #2

“I Did It!”
Earlier in the evening, Gwyn had a successful visit to the potty!  At the duck pond, I notice her squating.

“What are you doing?” I said,  “Are you going to the bathroom?!?”

“Yeah!” she said with a sly smile on her face.

We were just 40 feet away from the restroom.  “Can you hold it?” I asked, “The potty is right over there.”

“Yeah!” she said with a sly smile on her face.

So we walked over to the potty.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to report to Mommy that we had two successful potty trips?  We got to the restroom.  I pulled her pants and pull-ups down and discovered that she had not, in fact, held it.  But we were already there, so I held her over the toilet.  She sat idle for a few moments, grabbed some toilet paper, wiped herself and then despite the poop in her pull-ups she got a huge smile on her face and proudly exclaimed, “I did it!!!!” 

Baby Ducks and Willow Trees
After the duck feeding, Gwyn had lots of fun picking clovers, running through willow trees and exploring a nearby tent.  We also saw a number of adoreable duck families.

A mama and her babies

Gwyn plays in a willow tree

Before we knew it, it was bedtime for both the ducks and Gwyn.  All our pictures from the Virginia Tech Duck Pond visit are on my Flickr site.