Victoria Hinz "The Noland Trail 2"

I spent most of my time on the Noland Trail watching ducks. Two ducks in particular. As I was taking notes on their behavior, I referred to them as #1 and #2. As I watched them I began to feel like they had a story. I started giving them human characteristics in my notes. I knew one was a male and one was a female, because of their different feather colors. It looked like them male was following the female, but not getting too close, always staying within a certain distance from her. As she moved up the bank of the lake, he moved up. The female settled down near a tree, but the male never moved closer to her or sat down. He stood there, standing guard. I watched them for nearly 15 minutes. I began to feel like they deserved real names, not #1 and #2. I resisted naming them because they were not pets, they were technically wild animals. I hope that the relationship and interaction I saw in the ducks was not my imagination, and that they really did have something special between them.