Enjoying Water Birds

     Driving by a six-acre, human-made impoundment near Morgantown, Pennsylvania on December 8, 2017, I thought to stop and check the lake for water birds.  I stopped at that lake three days ago and saw one stately great blue heron stalking fish in the shallows near a shoreline.  But wintering birds shift around a lot and I wanted to see if any birds were on the lake on December 8, as they have at times in winters past.
     About 20 handsome Canada geese floated and rested in the middle of the impoundment.  A ten-foot wall of beige and seed-plumed phragmites along one shoreline offered an appropriate and impressive backdrop to the lake and the geese on it.
     Scanning the impoundment with binoculars, I saw up to 20 ring-necked ducks, mostly the elegant drakes, sitting on the water's surface near the geese.  Those ring-necks were hard to count because of their constant diving for food and re-surfacing, but interesting to watch diving under water from the surface to get aquatic vegetation off the lake's bottom to ingest.  Perhaps the suddenly colder weather pushed these bay ducks into moving farther south.  Or, maybe, they were merely somewhere else in the local area.  
     Three pied-billed grebes floated on the water near to the ring-necks and geese.  All three of them also dove occasionally under water from the surface to snare small fish in their beaks as they swam under water.  They came to the surface to swallow their victims.  Pied-bills have been on this lake every winter for at least the last few years.  These grebes might be the same ones that have been here before.
     A couple dozen pretty, over-wintering mallard ducks swam among and in front of the wall of emergent phragmites along the back shore.  Many mallards tipped-up, with their tails pointing toward the sky, to use their broad bills to shovel water plants, some of their food sources, off the bottom of the shallows.  A pair of striking black ducks, a pair of pretty wood ducks and a half-dozen attractive gadwall ducks swam among the mallards and fed much like them.
     As I watched the ring-necks, and the mallards and their puddle duck associates, another eight gadwalls swooped in for a landing on the water near their relatives already on the impoundment.  Those gadwalls in flight were striking to see.  They were streamlined, dark against the gray sky and had a white square on each wing that was extended in flight.  Those highly visible, white patches might hold the gadwalls together in a flock when in flight.
     Seeing the mallards and their associates and the ring-necks on the lake reminded me that mallards are the most common puddle duck in southeastern Pennsylvania and ring-necks are the most common bay ducks inland.  The presence of those two species on that pond was more appropriate to me than exciting.      
     Two majestic great blue herons slowly stalked fish in the shallows along the edges of the impoundment, one of them in and out of a stand of cattails growing out of the water.  Those herons offered another element of beauty and interest to the imopoundment.
     And there was a half dozen ring-billed gulls sitting on an edge of the lake.  They offered a bit of the ocean and estuary shore to that inland environment.  Other times in the past, a lot of gulls had rested on that impoundment between feeding forays in nearby fields and land fills.
     I was happy to watch that human-made impoundment for an hour.  Though I didn't see any outstanding birds or other creatures, I had a joyful, inspiring time along its shores.  We all can have peace and joy just by being immersed in nature, most anywhere, most anytime.