Yesterday’s cold snap began icing in Blue Hill Bay again. This apparently was a signal for the local mallards to come and seek shelter and sustenance in the running fresh water below the dam at the mouth of Mill Stream.
Being mallards, they went into auto-quack mode upon seeing so many old friends and potential mates. You could hear the din through closed windows while driving across the Main Street bridge. I stopped trying to count the sleeping, swimming and flying mallards when I reached 70.
(Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on January 16, 2026.)