Swamp in the City

Structure in the Swamp
Originally uploaded by Darrell

This little patch of swamp is in the city limits, believe it or not. A well-traveled highway runs right past it. I've passed by it no less than fifty times in the last year, and I've always wondered about it.
What is that little decaying building? It looks like an outhouse. There's an abundance of wildlife there, too. Birds of all colors and sizes, aquatic life and more than a few reptiles.
Traffic is so fast as it zooms by, I suspect few people take the time to stop and look at everything that's going on. I know I induced a couple of double-takes as I pulled off to the shoulder of the road to squeeze off a few frames.
There's a major body of water just on the other side of a levee which has created this little slice of city swamp, so it's not a surprise that it's full of life. It just seems completely out of place, like a puzzle piece forced into the wrong spot.
I hope people keep zipping by so this little dot of wetlands remains undisturbed. Here are a couple more photos.

You would never know that five feet behind me, cars and 18-wheelers were rumbling by at 50 mph. Maybe that's why nobody else stops. They're not stupid enough to put their lives at risk for a silly picture.

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Spot News!

It felt like old times for me today. I got a series of frantic phone calls from co-workers requiring my immediate attention. An event was transpiring and it needed to be documented. There was no time to waste. So, I jumped in the car with a camera, called another co-worker with a video camera, and off we went. It was like running to a house fire during my days as a TV newshuman. This was big news, in fact, but just for us. Ducks were hatching!
We have been watching mother ducks on some of our company's property for weeks. They have been diligently setting, protecting their eggs. On Halloween, hatching happened.At first, just a beak. This process took much longer than I anticipated. Not being Mr. Nature Boy, I had never actually witnessed a hatching. I've seen a litter of puppies and a litter of kittens born. I saw my children spring forth from the womb, but this was my first up close bird experience.Truly, it was all very exciting. We have recently lost an entire batch of ducklings to the varmints, so people were running around trying to keep the little guys safe.Some of them took to water like....well, ducks!Nobody was really sure if rescuing them to keep them from being eaten by cats, turtles, raccoons or whatever is a good idea. All we know is every one of the little swimmers pictured below met its demise within a week of hatching:So, every reasonable effort is being made to keep our new little friends quacking, and that's good news. After all, just breaking into the world can exhaust a duck. He will take all the help he can get.

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