Mallards

You can't really see the green headed mallards, but when I opened by BirdNET app, that's what it heard.

Wikipedia: Males (drakes) have green heads, while the females (hens) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and, unlike many waterfowl, are considered an invasive species in some regions. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.

I've seen a lot of spring flowers on social media, but these were the first I saw in the real.

Downy Woodpecker

 

We planted wildflowers on our walk to school today and then after I dropped Ruby off, I went down to the lake and planted some wildflowers by the lake: Cosmos, Crimson Clover, Blue Lupine, Baby Snapdragon, Lemon Mint, Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), and Perennials. I turned on my BirdNET app, and got something else besides a red wing blackbird, I got a Downy Woodpecker. I didn't see it. I meditated for 10 minutes, but it's not good with my shoes on and it's too muddy and wet for me to take off my shoes. 

Open!

I was really revving myself up to get angry to break the sign and tug at the chain and look at the fence to see if there were weaknesses I could break.

Instead I told the worker about the joy of being able to walk down to the lake.

I meditated for 17 minutes. I heard a bird, and I opened my BirdNET app and found out it was a red winged blackbird, from the passerine family. 

So many projects, I was going to read all of Thoreau's essays. And I see I've only read one. Next one is The Service, which wasn't published by Dial. 

I listened to the essay. It's so complicated, and doesn't flow easily. He's a contrarian, who sought the military model when others are pacifists.