My competitor

There is an old lady who feeds the ducks in the afternoon.  I've come across her a couple of times now.  She feeds them bread and yesterday she also had ground up lettuce and vegetables left overs.  Finally, as she was ready to get into her car, she also fed them some kind of birdseed.  I just happened to stop by the park about 4:15 p.m. while on my way home from school.  I had my camera with me because I wanted to get more photos of our newly-dumped snow on the mountains.  It has actually lasted for two days! So, I pulled into the park and not only was she feeding them, but a man was sitting on a bench feeding the ducks and two Canadian geese.  A father and son were sitting down feeding more of them, and the "duck lady" was throwing bread at them.  I grabbed my camera and went off following her.  That wasn't difficult considering she didn't move very fast.  The ducks apparently all know her and are very comfortable pushy with her.  She actually picked up one duck and put it on a park bench and let it eat out of her bag!  Oye!  And, she had her little dog with her.  The ducks followed her as she made a circle around the park.  I watched her closely (she is, after all, my competitor) and learned where she stopped to feed them.  He, he!  I don't feed them bread as I read up on that and it is basically just junk food for ducks.  Nope.  I give them the "good stuff"...they either get cracked corn or a mixture of cracked corn and other grains.  I stopped by the feed store yesterday afternoon before I headed over to the park  and bought 1 bag of cracked corn (the last bag in the store) and another one of the mixture.  After the duck lady left, I did feed the ducks, too, and the Canadian geese came ambling over to see what was so exciting.  I had no idea they were SO MEAN!  They plucked a few of the ducks and one actually stepped on a duck!  They snapped at them and threatened them.  I wish they would continue on their journey and leave the park's ducks ALONE!  Ugh.  While they are beautiful to see in the sky, they are monsters on the ground!  (in my opinion...) Hubby goes to work early this morning, so I'll go back and check on the ducks and feed them.  I've come to know several of them now.  There's a little mallard with a bag leg, there's a black duck who is hilarious, and there are the 13 white ducks who are quite PUSHY and demand to be hand fed (thanks to the duck lady!)...I do not hand feed any of them!  There's a little tan duck with a cotton ball of feathers on his head (he's quite ADORABLE)...I'm wondering now how many of the ducks will be there all summer.  I know the white ones are as I've seen them previous years...it will be interesting to watch and document.  Here are some photos from yesterday...