Place 10: Bathing Day

1:50 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13

Only two large clumps of leaves remain on the maple tree by Chatham pond. All the same shade of bright yellow, not a single green leaf. It’s amazing how a tree can transform so quickly in one week.

Six mallards, the most I have seen so far, groom themselves incessantly in the water near the pond’s edge. Three males and three females, of course. Every time I see mallards I see an even number, and so this past week I browsed some random facts about them and learned that mallards are typically monogamous. They form pairs in the fall and court one other throughout the winter until breeding season begins in the spring.

This week the ducks and I have company. A young man across the pond near the deep end observes the mallards and records their activities with a professional-grade video camera resting on a tripod. It’s no wonder the ducks have caught his attention because they are more active than usual. While grooming, they splash in the pond and rub water against their feathers. One male in particular makes a racket in the middle of the pond by flapping his wings against the water. First he repeatedly dips his head and body beneath the surface to wet himself. When he emerges he commences to stretch himself upright and flap his wings madly as if trying to fly, but instead he moves horizontally and splashes droplets in every direction. After several minutes of dipping and flapping, he joins the other five ducks near the grassy bank and preens his chest, wings and tail feathers.

I want to observe the ducks closer during their heavy preening. But instead of sitting down on my bench for a better view, I stand several yards away. If I sat in my usual spot beneath the tree I would frighten the ducks and interrupt the man’s video taping. I’m tempted to ask him why he’s filming, but he’s preoccupied with his work and seems intent on recording as much footage as possible. I hear him speak into the microphone attached to his camera but cannot understand what he says. It reminds me of nature videos in which the narrator observes animals in their natural habitats and describes their daily lives spent stalking prey, sleeping, and interacting with other animals. I assume this young man is a student at Chatham, and may possibly be filming his own nature video. However, I doubt his narration will address ducks in their natural habitat because Chatham pond is certainly not natural. The grass has been groomed, nearby plants and rocks landscaped for aesthetic reasons and for erosion control, and the atmosphere thrives with humans. Yet, unless the mallards fly away to a remote area, Chatham’s campus is about the closest they will get to a natural habitat in the middle of Pittsburgh.

Soon, three girls who appear to be undergraduates meander off a nearby sidewalk onto the grass toward the pond. They stand by the edge and follow the direction of the man’s video camera. Usually, passersby either don’t notice the ducks or don’t care. These girls didn’t see the ducks immediately, but they saw the man and after following the direction of his camera noticed the mallards. And of course, they comment as if seeing ducks for the first time.

I’m continually amazed by the fact that we never pay attention to nature unless someone else draws our interest to a specific plant or animal. Then, we stop and stare for a few minutes, marveling at the simplest critter or flower never realizing that we walk past them every day. If the young man wasn’t filming, I doubt the girls would have wandered toward the pond because they would have no reason to do so. I consider myself someone who pays attention to nature, but to be honest, I didn't realize ducks visited the campus until I started visiting the pond every week. The sad part is, is that I don't always have the time to stop and look because I'm too busy trying to finish everything else during my day: work, school, homework. Hopefully, there will come a day--and soon--when I can stop and enjoy my surroundings on a more regular basis.