Duckilings Hatch: Out on the lake.

UPDATE: 5-15-16
Aparently I was too concerned with ‘what happened to the egg shells?’ Took this video from my patio a few days after discovering the nest empty. Can’t be a hundred percent sure this is the same ‘clutch’, but the math adds up: 8 egg shells, one remnant of an egg shell in the nest after ‘abandoment’, one dead duckling(and egg shell) on the neighbors patio, and 6 ducklings in this clutch, and no father duck from begining of the nest thru to this video:

This is one of only two ducklings clutches on the lake so far this season.

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Previous post:

Just discovered some new neighbors on my patio.
Was lighting the grill (only about 5 feet from the nest) when the mother duck flushed and scared me out of a year or two.

The incubation period is 25-30 days, so there goes grilling on Memorial Day, Independence weekend may be OK. Unfortunately, even though so many geese and ducks hatch around here, many don't survive for long. I'm just realizing one reason may be that most people let them hatch, but then shew them off once their born.

Well, I going to try to figure a way to set up a video 'blind'.

Actually, this is the 2nd family that moved onto my patio. Last weekend some morning doves started building a nest on top of my tool-shed, but they disappeared after a few days and the nest was poorly located and they never finished it. There's a light pole just outside of my patio that some birds nested in the last two years, but maintenance got around to fixing the broken glass pane this spring and those birds never returned. Use to be able to set on the patio at night and watch the silhouette of the family moving about when the lights came on.

National Police Week / Peace Officers Memorial Day

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“Arizona Peace Officers Memorial" by Visitor7 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -     The National Peace Officers' Memorial Service, which is sponsored by the Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, is one in a series of events which includes the Candlelight Vigil, which is sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and seminars sponsored by Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.)   Much of the holiday centers on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., whose walls feature the names of more than 19,000 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

Amended in 1994, Bill Clinton, through Public Law 103-322, directed that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff on May 15. According to a proclamation by George W. Bush in 2002, "Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week pay tribute to the local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers who serve and protect us with courage and dedication. These observances also remind us of the ongoing need to be vigilant against all forms of crime, especially to acts of extreme violence and terrorism." At the National Peace Officer's Memorial Service on May 15, 2013, President Barack Obama paid tribute to fallen law enforcement officers, closing: “The 143 fallen officers we honor today put themselves on the front lines of that fight, to preserve that quality of community, and to protect the roots of our greatness. They exemplified the very idea of citizenship -- that with our God-given rights come responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others. They embodied that idea. That’s the way they died. That’s how we must remember them. And that’s how we must live. We can never repay our debt to these officers and their families, but we must do what we can, with all that we have, to live our lives in a way that pays tribute to their memory. That begins, but does not end, by gathering here -- with heavy hearts, to carve their names in stone, so that all will know them, and that their legacy will endure. We are grateful to them and we are grateful to you.”

Sources:

• http://www.policeweek.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Officers_Memorial_Day

iNDy MuTT STRuT: 2016

Mutt Strut benefiting the Humane Society of
Indianapolis:
May 15, 2016 | Garfield Park
Indianapolis, Indiana

Donald Trump Doesn’t Know What the GI Bill Is (or Anything Else):

see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-soltz/donald-trump-doesnt-know_b_9872222.html

see: http://www.glennlittrell.org/2016/05/why-cant-i-support-donald-trump-because.html?utm_source=BP_recent&utm-medium=gadget&utm_campaign=bp_recent

National Police Week / Peace Officers Memorial Day

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“Arizona Peace Officers Memorial" by Visitor7 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -     The National Peace Officers' Memorial Service, which is sponsored by the Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, is one in a series of events which includes the Candlelight Vigil, which is sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and seminars sponsored by Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.)

Amended in 1994, Bill Clinton, through Public Law 103-322, directed that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff on May 15. According to a proclamation by George W. Bush in 2002, "Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week pay tribute to the local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers who serve and protect us with courage and dedication. These observances also remind us of the ongoing need to be vigilant against all forms of crime, especially to acts of extreme violence and terrorism." At the National Peace Officer's Memorial Service on May 15, 2013, President Barack Obama paid tribute to fallen law enforcement officers, closing: “The 143 fallen officers we honor today put themselves on the front lines of that fight, to preserve that quality of community, and to protect the roots of our greatness. They exemplified the very idea of citizenship -- that with our God-given rights come responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others. They embodied that idea. That’s the way they died. That’s how we must remember them. And that’s how we must live. We can never repay our debt to these officers and their families, but we must do what we can, with all that we have, to live our lives in a way that pays tribute to their memory. That begins, but does not end, by gathering here -- with heavy hearts, to carve their names in stone, so that all will know them, and that their legacy will endure. We are grateful to them and we are grateful to you.”

Much of the holiday centers on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., whose walls feature the names of more than 19,000 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

Sources:

• http://www.policeweek.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Officers_Memorial_Day

My new neighbors: Lake Castleton

                                                                               reposted/updated from 7-6-14
Ducks, Canadian Geese, squirrels, chipmunks, river otters, muskrats, green heron, turtles, crawdads, great blue heron, and a big cat.

Just discovered some new neighbors on my patio.
Was lighting the grill (only about 5 feet from the nest) when the mother duck flushed and scared me out of a year or two.

The incubation period is 25-30 days, so there goes grilling on Memorial Day, Independence weekend may be OK. Unfortunately, even though so many geese and ducks hatch around here, many don't survive for long. I'm just realizing one reason may be that most people let them hatch, but then shew them off once their born.

Well, I going to try to figure a way to set up a video 'blind'.

Actually, this is the 2nd family that moved onto my patio. Last weekend some morning doves started building a nest on top of my tool-shed, but they disappeared after a few days and the nest was poorly located and they never finished it. There's a light pole just outside of my patio that some birds nested in the last two years, but maintenance got around to fixing the broken glass pane this spring and those birds never returned. Use to be able to set on the patio at night and watch the silhouette of the family moving about when the lights came on.