I took a walk to the Beaty St. pond today as well as the pond at Roosevelt Wilson Park on Griffith St. I saw this male Mallard duck and he was pretty friendly. I think he's used to people feeding him. Notice how dark green his head is. The female Mallards are more brown all over and lack the green head. At the Beaty St. pond I noticed that the algae bloom is beginning. In this picture you can see bands of green on the surface of the water which is the algae beginning to form. As the summer goes on it will get much thicker. One thing that contributes to algae bloom is runoff from lawns and other places. The fertilizer on lawns gets concentrated in the water and provides food for the algae. This can be a problem for fish and other animals living in the pond. In this picture if you look closely you can see a turtle floating just under the surface of the pond. The top of his shell is showing as well as his head.
Your blog is delightful and the photos are too. About fertilizer on lawns: people shouldn't use chemicals to make their "grass" grow. Then the lawn more pollution would be reduced. The poisons used in gardening also are troublesome. Many think the problems honey bees are having these days are the result of toxix chemicals.
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