Four grown mallards with five ducklings, a raven, a red-winged blackbird, a dove, and one robin joined us on the field near the lake for karate last Saturday - or maybe we were joining them on their home turf.

I think if we'd been truly fighting, they would have disappeared fast. Instead they hung around as though we were giant, talking egrets in motion, as though we were something a little different, but not intending any harm.

A pair of Canadian geese flew over Broadway after breakfast.