The Lady and the...What?

I was walking down my street the other week. My eyes were focused forward, and my thoughts were far away.

But I heard a voice in a tone usually reserved for babies and kittens, so I turned to my left.

And then I saw the woman talking to the duck.

It was a honking, BIG, OGLY duck - one of those with a red bill and stuff on its head, white with black patterning.

YIKES!

Thankfully, it was not talking back.

They were by the side of one of the many bridges in my neighborhood, constructed over culverts and streams which carry runoff and rain to the ocean. The woman was in a parking lot. The duck was on the wall fronting the stream.

You could not get me as close to something that looked like that critter!

In her best baby-talking voice, the woman was trying to coax the Big Duck to eat from a bowl.

And I thought the people across the stream from me were a bit odd to have two fat Rhode Island Red hens in their yard, as this is not really the 'burbs!

Come to think of it, I wonder if the hens survived the Veteran's Day weekend? I haven't heard them since Saturday!

Just two more examples of the fauna in my urban neighborhood!