Geese, ducks and coots congregated in what appeared to be the last remaining bit of open water on Jamaica Pond, at the north end, this morning. Some birds remained aloof: Two swans seemed to prefer their space out on the ice rather than sharing it with their cousins, as did a flock of seagulls. Read more.

That's probably no big news for people used to wildlife, but to us confirmed city dwellers, well, you learn something every day. On a walk around Jamaica Pond this afternoon, I spotted this smallish duck come in over the water and land near some other ducks and ducklings. As it came in, it seemed to be whistling, rather than quacking.

Thanks to some folks on Twitter for identifying it as a wood duck.

Plunkett Prime went for a walk around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir today, reports:

The algae in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir is so bad that ducks leave a wake behind them and dead fish are floating everywhere.

The MWRA only uses the reservoir in emergencies.

Mary Ellen spotted this wood duck near Leverett Pond up by Rte. 9 on the JP/Brookline line today.

She also spotted a green-winged teal at the pond today: Read more.

Sophy Tuttle has quite the tale of what happened on her normally sedate Medford side street this morning when a drunken college student, on learning Tuttle's downstairs neighbor had packed three dozen chickens, a number of geese and ducks and an undetermined number of pigs in a trailer parked in the street, got a hammer and whacked the trailer open (all the while screaming "I know what I'm doing, my girlfriend goes to Tufts!"), releasing all the birds into the street (the pigs just stayed where they were):

I was woken up at 4:30 to the cops banging on our door screaming "Are these your f*%$ing chickens?!?!" "Get the F*%^ out here and get them!". My neighbor runs out and starts screaming at the kid. My next door neighbors and the farmer and his wife now spend the next 2 hours chasing chickens and ducks allll over my neighborhood, all while screaming like it's not 5am. While the kid is sitting in cuffs on my porch, the cop says "are you a college student?", to which the moron replies, "yea, I go to college". The cop replies, "that's why then. All you college kids are f*&%ing idiots". My roommates and I are standing on the porch, watching about 5 seasoned police officers chase chickens on a suburban street at 5 am and trying not to laugh, because, you know, they have guns.

As if you needed more proof ducks can't read. Seen at lunchtime in the Public Garden - where I had one squirrel and one sparrow come after me when they thought I was reaching for food instead of my camera.

Mary Ellen says it looked like she caught a wood duck in mid-sneeze the other day on the Jamaica Plain side of Leverett Pond.

La Bibliotequetress stuck around just long enough to make sure the ducks didn't eat that guy by the bench yesterday.