Was sitting in my customary place by the river today -- and found that, in the two weeks I was gone, the sun had moved to the point where my customary bench at my customary time is now in sunlight! -- and spotted the pretty black-and-white ducks floating out on the river. My friend Jim, who knows much more about ducks than I do, says they're buffleheads. The male was the one who landed in the middle of the mallards, and apparently he went back to Red Hook for his mate and now they're establishing a bufflehead beachhead here in lower Manhattan. Watching them reminded me that I hadn't told you about the uuuuugly ducks in West Palm Beach (although I did a haiku on them). Another friend, also Jim (this time, Jim Born) has a house on a lake and I spent the last night of this trip there, along with Jim Fusilli and Reed Coleman. The morning was great, plenty of time for a walk and then a cup of tea in the sunshine in his backyard before the trip to the airport. That lake is occupied by what Jim B. says are muscovy ducks. They have red warts on their faces and waddle clumsily on land, and unlike most waterbirds they swim clumsily too. People on the lake feed them, so as soon as they saw me come out with my tea they headed over. They seemed very put out that I hadn't brought them a bagel. They quacked at me for awhile, and then went back to pecking for worms at the edge of the lake. It was warm and sunny, and after the rain in Texas and my bronchitis, I was soooo happy to be there, sitting in the warm sunshine watching ugly ducks. As I am happy to be home here, sitting in the cold sunshine watching pretty ones.