It was an ordinary day. Beautiful morning and the sun was brightly shining with the temperature in the low to mid 70 degrees. I had just parked the car after entering Lancaster's Long's Park which is about a mile from my home at Woodcrest Villa.
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| Long's Park in Lancaster, PA |
Read an article in the Lancaster Newspaper a day or two ago that was written by "The Scribbler," Jack Brubaker, which told of a small flock of ducks that had recently arrived on the pond at the park and thought it would be fun to make a visit and take a few photographs of the ducks.  |
| Mallards getting ready to enter the water |
Turned out to be a few dozen ducks which were an unusual assortment. There were about two dozen mallards as suspected, but I also saw one coal-black Cayuga, about a half-dozen khaki Campbell male ducks and one snow-white crested Pekin.  |
| A Cayuga followed by the Perkin |
The Cayuga is totally black, including the bill and feet. When the sun shone off his coat he seemed to have a greenish to bluish irridescent feathering. They are named after the Cayuga Lake in New York State. The bright-white Perkin is an American breed of domestic duck, raised primarily for meat. It derives from birds brought to the United States from China in the nineteenth century, and is now bred in many parts of the world. They actually look like what most people picture when you say "duck"! The Perkin that I was looking at had what appeared to be a crest or a dense assortment of head feathers flopped off to one side of his head which made it a relatively rare member of the breed. The khaki Campbells were males that had dark brown heads with khaki and white feathers over the body.  |
| The Campbell ducks |
These three breeds tended to harass the mallards that shared the pond as well as ran into each other, but other than that, they also loved the peanuts I was throwing their way. Funny how they know who is the one with the food, even when there are a dozen or so people looking at them. Well I managed to get a few good shots and headed back to my car. On the way back I saw what appeared to be the largest gold fish I had ever seen. Not sure, but it appeared to be close to three feet long and about 6 inches in width.  |
| Feeding the Cayuga |
A few dozen other gold fish were closeby, probably feeling safe swimming slightly under the big guy. My photo I took of the goldfish is slightly out of focus since he was about six inches under water and the water was rather rough around him. He was another one who loved the peanuts. Well, finished my photos and hopped back in the car and headed back home. Told my wife about my experience and will probably return in the near future for another visit with the fish in Long's Park lake. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. |
| The huge goldfish |
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