We usually have a group of ducks which winter-over here, but I haven't seen any for a couple of weeks and I think they went south this time. I haven't been feeding them for the last couple of months because I learned something.

It isn't the change of the seasons that makes them migrate, it's hunger. When the food fails, they head south. If the food doesn't fail, they don't.

Which makes perfect sense, but it means that when people like me feed them in September and October, we're stuck with them for the entire winter because we're responsible.

As to the rain, it's been heavy for about four hours, and the creek has risen about a foot and is moving fast. It's pouring through a hole in the most recent beaver dam that our handyman tore in it a few days ago.

It's still raining now but not as heavily. I still don't expect to get any visitors.

There was a group of geese that wintered over here last year, and we had a huge group of them which were living in my part of the yard for most of the summer, with at least four groups of goslings. Then, one day, they just vanished. I guess the fledgelings finally were able to fly, and the whole group headed out for somewhere better. (There are a group of lakes a few miles west of here; that' s my guess as to where they went.)

About a month later a few of them showed up here again, for one day. And I haven't seen any since. I assume they've headed south too.

They really are supposed to go south, though.