The 26th day of the sixth month of the year of Emergence

I am still scanning old slides and it is a tedious, not so boring, job.  Can only do three at a time and each pass of three takes about ten minutes.  I have no idea how many there are to do, but I am culling what ten years ago I thought was the next Mona Lisa and now are obviously, painfully not.  I probably started with around thirty thousand images and two thirds of them will be found at the bottom of a large green thing on the curb every Tuesday morning.

The upside to this exercise, if there is one, is a visit to nostalgia land with each image.  Strangely enough, I remember almost each image, the place it was made, and story behind it.  Most of the time there is a story, but often as not.............not.  This one today is of a duck called a Scaup. 

There are two Scaups, a lesser which prefers to find fresh water such as ponds and lakes.  The greater Scaup is more comfortable in salt water.  The greater is about a half pound larger than the lesser.  They are almost identical is shape, color, and range.  This one is probably a Lesser Scaup because of the almost crown on the head.

This bird was captive and kept by the world class duck carver Jim Sprankle.

http://www.sprankle.com/bio.htm

Jim had a place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland which I visited along with two photography friends.  The ducks were kept in a pen with a pit dug in front of the pond from which photographs could be made.  The whole arrangement was locked behind a heavy mesh fencing to keep the birds enclosed.  When we broke for lunch, one of the other photographers locked the cage and the two of us left to get sandwiches.  The remaining photographer had no idea how long we would be gone and ended up getting unintentionally locked up with the ducks for a couple of hours.  Talk about mad.  It took a few days just to get some conversation out of her. 

Most people think of ducks and "Quack, quack" comes to mind.  Well they don't always talk like that.  For instance a Wood Duck whistles and only the Mallard gives the standard quack.  The Lesser Scaup female makes a grating "Garf Garf" sound.  Sound familiar?  Males in display produce a husky whistled phrase that the effect is more peeping than bubbling; almost a quiet whistle pilt.  Sure, if you got somebody "Garfing" at you all the time, a peep is probably the appropriate response.  Sounds like the human counterparts.  You know the new male, metro sexual, castratie!