Now I've had animals roam my backyard wall for many years but today's entry was a real surprise. We've seen possums, skunks, raccoons and more out there but yesterday a beautiful teal headed mallard flew in.

We watched him walk up and down the wall for quite a while from inside the house.  After a couple of hours we went about our chores and the wife even went out back to water the plants.

Out new duck just sat undisturbed and continued his quacking. He didn't seem to be bothered by our presence at all.

I finally took out some bread and set it on the wall but he was pretty fat and didn't seem all that hungry.  I continued to watch him for some time but he just stared out down our backyard slope. He ate a couple of pieces and continued to sit.

Well, I guess enough time had passed and he took off and landed on our roof where he sat and quacked some more. A few minutes later he swooped down and was off.  I went out back and looked over the wall.

Sure enough, he was having a great time paddling around the neighbors pool. Looks like he had been scoping out the pool for several hours before making a commitment to dive in.

A couple of hours later I picked up the Daily Breeze. Much to my surprise, right there on the front page was the headline "Machado Lake's Cleanup to Start." I thought, mallard - lake, ducks on the pond? Was my new friend from Lake Machado where his habitat is slated to be disturbed for the next several years?

Let's hope not.

P.S. When I returned home in the late afternoon, our new friend was gone.