Ice Breaker Ducks - Who Knew?

Design in Ice

Earlier this week we had snow.  The weather report called for 6 to 12 inches falling mostly during the day.  It was a pretty good day to stay home and I was fortunate to be able to do so.  Early in the afternoon, I looked out to see the snow progress and noticed that the retention pond next to my house had a lovely design in the ice!  The blob of white near the center of the design is a clump of grass. 

Design with its Creators

I thought it was fascinating how the design just showed up – another Mother Nature marvel like the individuality of snowflakes.  But the next time I checked the snowfall, the design was more complicated!  Then I noticed that there were 4 ducks out there.  I had seen a mating pair a few days earlier when we had a couple of warm days and there are usually a few eating from the pond early in the season.  I don’t know where they nest as I have never seen them with any ducklings, but the adults seem to show up every year.

Unfortunately, the first couple of pictures I took through the glass and screen on the window didn’t turn out.  You could see the screen, but not much behind it.  So these two pictures were taken about the same time.  If you look carefully towards the top right of the design, you may be able to make out a pair of the ice-breaker ducks whose swimming in the almost frozen pond created the patterns.