A year and half back, I stopped on one of the bridges on the hike and bike trail to idly chat with a nature photographer. We were discussing the life expectancy of some little baby ducks, about seven which were in the chicklet stage. Last year, all of those little ducks made it as I could track them while they grew up. This year, another family, and I stopped yesterday, long enough to share a moment or two with the artist. She was sketching the ducks, and while she didn’t know much about most of the critters, she did have quite an eye for a quick pencil sketch. “But I don’t know much about waterways,” she said, “or waterfowl.” I did my best to enlighten her about the best places to see some of the cool critters we got along the river, the various long legged fishing birds, the hawks, the scrap meat eaters, the varieties of ducks, the snakes, and so forth. And turtles, the red and yellow eared sliders, soft-shell with their long necks, and the occasional big snapper.