Tag: Ducks

  • Homestead Haikus

    Homestead Haikus

    I often refer to Rosslyn as a homestead, but I’m aware that might mislead some of you. No livestock. That’s probably the biggest deviation from most self proclaimed homesteads. No chickens. No pigs, sheep, or goats. No milk cow. No 160 acre land grant (though we’ve slowly grown Rosslyn’s acreage to more than a third…

  • De-Icing the Duck Pond

    Let me start by saying that we don’t have a duck pond. We have a lake. Lake Champlain. And although it pains me slightly to say it, we also don’t have any ducks. Not personally, at least. Lake Champlain, on the other hand, has plenty of ducks. And when the lake freezes and the ducks…

  • Mallard Jacuzzi

    Mallard Jacuzzi

    As Lake Champlain freezes and thaws and freezes again, trying to create a seamless skateable expanse between the Adirondack Coast and Vermont, Rosslyn’s boathouse bubbler offers the wild ducks welcome refuge. It’s a veritable mallard jacuzzi! Or a bald eagle buffet? The shrewd raptors observe from the trees nearby, waiting… Ducks at Dawn on Icy…

  • Bald Eagle Breakfast

    I saw a young bald eagle recently flying over the lake just off from the hamlet. The ducks by the ferry dock ignored him but I bet they were keeping a close watch nevertheless. ~ Rob Ivy (Essex Column, Feb. 5, 2014) I bundled up this morning – thermals and lots of fleecy layers –…

  • Make Way for Ducklings

    Make Way for Ducklings

    As a child, one of my favorite picture books was Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey. Really… Okay, am I giving away too much? Probably. That’s the way of the storyteller! There was something about those illustrations — simple unselfconscious line drawings halfway between representational sketches and cartoons — that captivated me, that compelled…