Hey there, Dirtslinger2. A lot of it is going to depend on how attractive your pond is to ducks and geese and during their annual migrations all bets are off. By the way, they are protected except in hunting season so keep that in mind. For additional info do a search of the forum for the word ducks. You will see a rectangle labeled search at the top of the forum page. About the only thing I have heard that works is to keep the dock so crowded with stuff they don't have room to land but they can still get there from the land side. I have to wonder though why you are so concerned. Ponding by its nature is not the cleanest thing around. Usually, since most attempts fail, it would just make you crazy to worry about it. Clean it when it is bad and don't get upset about something you can't avoid. Sandy

It's just east of Bemidji, so a bit further north. You should get some good fall colors around there. They're at peak here and starting to drop, so I'd imagine this'll be the prime weekend for that area. That's got to be about the northern extent of Butternut! They sure don't grow around here.. not naturally, anyway. You could probably plant pine in the area and they'd grow really well there if you have sandy soil. They were probably just logged and never reseeded. Even if you have clay, white pine would grow. There's just something about the "Northwoods" that just wouldn't feel the same without evergreens.

Thanks! I seldom use a tripod, but since I was in the car, I just balanced the Canon 400mm lens against the window. My Canon EOS 40D needs strong light from behind and to be close to work well, so I was glad the Buffleheads came as close as they did..about 40 feet away while fighting. As to why they were fighting, Buffleheads are monogamous, at least for a few years at a time, so apparently the newcomer male was defending his mate of choice that year. Perhaps she'd not yet made up her own mind because she kept approaching the single male, bobbing her head, and he'd bob back. Whenever he noticed this the first male would attack and drive the single male away, even though the single male kept trying to continue his foraging dives between attacks. These sea ducks are among the last to migrate to their breeding grounds in Canada, where they use Northern Flicker and Pileated Woodpecker holes by small lakes (link to Bufflehead pdf files http://seaduckjv.org/infoseries/buff_sppfactsheet.pdf ) For the Wood Ducks, I crawled into an old slab wood lean-to blind and balanced the lens against a cross bar. They are very jittery and I've not been able to sneak up on them since

Thank you all! I've been working on the photography quite a lot lately and have been pleased with some of the shots. Of larger birds, ha ha! Still having trouble with the little guys. And of course, still have LOTS of room for improvement, but am happy to be progressing! And Kendra, that's my favorite as well.