American Widgeon at Kent's Pond

 The American Widgeon is often found feeding with diving ducks such as the scaup, who are adept at rooting up vegetation from deep in the water. A bit of a bully,  this duck will snatch the greens from the diving ducks as they surface. The widgeon is more wary than most ducks, and flies into  the air without much notice at the first sign of imagined danger.

Cormorant Drying Wings

I saw a little cormorant
Upon a rock, and grinned.
Her outstretched wings were soaking wet,
And drying in the wind.

I called to her, “You live
A very inefficient way.
Why, I reckon you’ll be standing
On that rock for half the day.”

The cormorant replied, saying,
“Stop a while and think.
I never need to take them off,
And wash them in the sink.

“I never have to spin them dry
Or hang them on the line,
So tell me which procedure
Is the simpler, yours or mine?”

- Stephen Whiteside