At the beginning of March it was lovely to be able to chat to strangers as we enjoyed our walks before the world shifted into unfamiliar and surreal.
This is the tale of an encounter that happened on one of my local walks:
In the morning I waited in for a delivery that didn’t show up leading me to a window of opportunity after lunch for a local walk. I chose my direction and and one of my favourite benches was unusually vacant so I took my opportunity to sit and rest a while overlooking a pool watching the antics of the ducks and geese.
Just after I sat down I heard the exclamation ‘Oh! the bench is taken now’. A fisherman was walking along the path and settled his kit to the side of where I was perched on the bench.
I said I would move up so he could sit on the end of the bench. He protested but I moved anyway and he sat on the opposite end of the bench.
We got chatting and I asked if there were a lot of fish to be caught. He confirmed the were and some surprisingly big ones for a small pool. He showed me a picture (on his mobile phone) of him holding a large fish that he had caught recently.
As we were chatting the solitary white duck that frequents the pool was hovering around knowing that fishermen always have food. The fisherman fed the duck calling him Billy, My new found friend proceeded to tell me the story of how the duck arrived at the pool.
Apparently about 10 years ago a lady approached the pool with a shopping trolley from which she deposited three white ducks in the pool. Over the years two of the ducks met with unfortunate accidents (I will spare you the details) so now Billy was alone.
I was too busy chatting that I forgot to take photographs. The accompanying photographs are from walks that I took around the pool in 2019.
(written for a Country Walking #walk1000miles Challenge).
An unusual story, Cherie. I am pleased that at least one duck has survived
but the single duck would be very lonely Like us in self isolation.
The duck has his fishermen friends and last year he must have had a lady mallard friend. A single yellow duck was spotted on a nearby pool last year.
The duck is lovely and has made friends with the fishermen who feed him.
Such a lovely encounter… one we can only dream of now.
We are experiencing difficult times.
I have not been for a walk since our lockdown I had stopped walking in the previous week. too many people walking in places that they previously didn’t.
But I have an idea
this is engaging story from your walk dear Cheri
i felt for duck who is lonely just like us these days hope she or he find companion soon by some other kind person like that lady many years ago
it is always nice to walk within nature
stay well and blessed as always!
We are all lonely these days but a least we can reach out to each other over social media and other electronic means
I think the duck is happy. Another gentleman I spoke to on a walk last year said that he had seen a yellow duckling on another local pond. This suggests that Billy may have had a mallard duck lady friend.
I hope you and your family are OK and that you all stay safe and well in these challenging times.
Poor duckies, who else is going to feed them now?
They have enough food to feed themselves. They just get lazy and people indulge them