Where we lived by the lake, during the spring, summer, and fall months Don loved to feed bread to about 100 redbreasted and blue gill sunfish in the water around our dock. In the clear water they would gather as he approached. They became so tame that he could hold the bread between his thumb and index finger and they ate out of his hand. They winter in the deep water, but come spring they'll remember how they were fed, and will return. Don had hoped the wild ducks would come to him to get fed, but they either stay a few yards away (the Mallards) or would fly away (Hooded Mergansers, Redheads, Wood Ducks, Ring-Necks). We had three pairs of Mallards that came each year but they looked different from the city mallards - they looked twice as big. One of the old-timers said they were actually Ruens (not sure of the spelling). We can't find them in any of our bird books. If anyone out there knows about Ruens, please advise.We have a pair of 8X50 binoculars and we were able to "unprofessionally" identify over 60 different species of birds on or around the lake. Following is a list of the types we saw, and we believe there were others.
Another question in Don's mind was how he could throw whole kernal corn in the cove nearest the house, in water anywhere from a few inches to 3 feet deep and ducks we had never seen before would show up right away. He threw the corn into the water so the squirrels wouldn't eat it, since there is always abundant food supply for squirrels there in the woods. We could see the corn in the shallow water, but not the deep water. How did the ducks know it was there? At the end of our pier the water was always 7' to 8' deep. Every year we were visited by a different species - the last year we lived there a flock of Ring-Neck Ducks visited, which are shown in two of the following pictures.
| Great Egret | Great Blue Heron | Dougle Crested Cormorant |
| Anhinga | Ring-Necked Duck | Mallard |
| Red Head Duck | Wood Duck | Hooded Merganser |
| Canada Goose | Least Sandpiper | Killdeer |
| Turkey | Screech Owl | Great Horned Owl |
| Sparrow Hawk | Cooper's Hawk | Broad-Winged Hawk |
| Bald Eagle | Turkey Vulture | Black Vulture |
| Mourning Dove | Purple Martin | White-Breasted Nuthatch |
| Evening Grosbeak | American Goldfinch | Tree Swallow |
| Barn Swallow | Red-Headed Woodpecker | Pileated Woodpecker |
| Red-Bellied Woodpecker | Downy Woodpecker | Hairy Woodpecker |
| Common Flicker | American Robin | Rufous-Sided Towhee |
| Cardinal | Purple Finch | House Finch |
| Mockingbird | Catbird | Carolina Chickadee |
| Dark-Eyed Junco | Tufted Titmouse | Belted Kingfisher |
| Bluejay | Eastern Bluebird | Ruby-Throated Hummingbird |
| Carolina Wren | Brown Thrasher | Wood Thrush |
| Brown-Headed Cowbird | Chipping Sparrow | Tree Sparrow |
| House Sparrow | Song Sparrow | White-Throated Sparrow |
| Swamp Sparrow | Fox Sparrow | Starling |
| Red-Winged Blackbird | Common Grackle | Common Crow |
White-Throated Sparrow and Male Cardinal
