I’d been keeping an eye on construction progress on the new pedestrian bridge at the Town Hall duck pond, waiting for the right time to take photos. Tuesday looked like the day as I happened to be driving past on my way back from picking up Wellesley Turkey Trot t-shirts and numbers at Marathon Sports. No construction workers or orange cones in sight, plus a bright blue sky for background.
Things started off simply enough as I took shots from different angles, getting the sun behind me and Town Hall in front.
While the water was flowing crisply beneath the bridge, there disappointingly was no sign of any ducks or geese.
So I decided to take a stroll around the pond to see if I could find any of these feathered ingrates.
When I got most of the way around I spotted a gaggle of geese, but a woman and young girl were hanging out there. I decided to give them some space and wandered over to an opening along the water where I could shoot a photo of the mostly white birds.
I then turned to my left to snap a photo of the old wooden bridge to nowhere that sits in the middle of the sanctuary. The bridge isn’t accessible to pedestrians.
But it is accessible to coyotes.
Just as I went to take the bridge photo, right at noon, an enormous one sauntered across. It was apparently well aware of where the birds had collected.
Fortunately, the presence of myself and the woman and girl must have encouraged the coyote to head to other parts for the time being.
“All of a sudden I saw all the birds’ heads go up,” the woman warned, clearly marking me as one of those idiot photographers who gets gored by bison at Yellowstone National Park.
She and the girls skittered away from the birds and towards the new bridge. It definitely seemed like the safest place to be.
Good story. Wellesley’s ecosystem works. Glad all are safe.
The geese are wise to canines, having been chased by a few dogs. They seem to know to hang out together and go to water when a wild or domestic canine appears or even when one of the hawks swoops overhead.
by the way looking for volunteer feeders to bring the plastic trough of corn to the ducks this winter. Once the snow covers the ground they need the supplement. I have them trained to come by calling “Duckie Duckie Duckie” and they get some corn. We use the trough so none i left on the ground. When people used to through food out we had a rodent (rat) issue around the pond. Now we just feed the domestic ducks and let all the wild critters find their natural food sources.
Thanks for the heads up on the volunteer feeders Sue…Bob