Peanuts In My Pocket

Last week, while out on a hike, well, more accurately, I was having a rather disappointing birding day, I stumbled upon a heartwarming scene: a group of young people releasing juvenile mallards into the Santa Ana River. I counted 24, though there may have been more.

Curious, I asked, “Are those mallards?” They nodded, and the leader, whose boots are shown in the photo above, explained that they had raised the birds from chicks.

She then asked if I was logging the birds in eBird. I told her I was, and we shared a small laugh. It was the first time I had recorded birds during a release, and I felt genuinely uplifted by the experience. In fact, I walked away with a huge smile on my face. There really are good people in the world, and birding has brought me into contact with many of them.

Mallards are common pond birds where I live. They often compete with American coots and Canada geese in our local parks. I rarely photograph them, as I tend to view them the same way I do house sparrows, familiar and endearing, but not usually deserving of focused attention. That perspective shifted with this encounter. Watching these young mallards take their first steps into the wild was moving, and absolutely worth the hour-long hike it took to find them.