Because I know how much you want them, here are not one, not two, but three bird reports.

Central Park: I'm delighted to report I was in the park two days ago and saw many male mallards but only three identifiable females. I say "identifiable" because two of the non-standard ducks up there, lovely brown ones, could go either way: you can't tell from their plumage. But even if you count them, that only makes five, meaning about a dozen females are nesting, so we'll have lots of ducklings. Among the females not to be found is the large aggressive white one. With my own eyes I saw her and her boyfriend getting it on, so it may be that she'll soon be swimming around trailed by a string of mutant ducklings as hulking, pale, and obnoxious as she. Why does this prospect please me? Probably just an atavistic streak that wants to see that bucolic pond shaken up. It's all very well, this peaceful paddling, this pretending we're in a country glade, but this is New York, and this white whale of a duck strikes me as a very city bird.

Meanwhile, down near by bench on the Hudson, we have Canada goose goslings, one set of four. They were apparently born even before I left for China because they're nearly full grown. Usually we get more than one clutch, but not this year. We also have a brand-new set of mallard ducklings, which is nice because we had another set that didn't make it. Urban Naturalist tells me they were the product of a different mother, who even for a duck was supremely clueless. The mother of the current bunch seems to know what gives, though. We also have the usual cormorants; black-back and herring gulls; terns; and now barn swallows, too. And a pair of Gadwalls, the female of which seems to have built a nest in the tall grass on the edge of the bike path. The male thinks she's nuts -- as do I -- and won't have anything to do with it. He just swims around quacking for her. Last week she flew back to him when he quacked, but I haven't seen her for days now. So either she got in trouble with a bike or a dog, or she's hatching new Gadwalls in the shrubbery.

And out at the Rancho? Overhead: egrets, herons, gulls, terns and osprey. In the yard: cardinals, catbirds, robins, cowbirds, sparrows, woodpeckers, house finches, goldfinches, starlings, blue jays, and, new this year, Baltimore orioles. Last year a pair of Baltimore orioles nested in the yard of the Rancho Annex half a mile away, and they're back there this year. I don't know if the two I saw in our yard last week were those same two, just cruising, or last year's offspring looking to expand. Since the Annex is occupied by former Rancho residents and their offspring, I'd consider it poetic if their birds' second generation came to us. We also had a pair of cedar waxwings romping in the branches at the top of one of our tallest trees, and we're hoping they were nesting, but they don't generally like to set up housekeeping so close to people. I'll let you know.

Saturday morning addendum: the male odiole was busily courting the female this morning, grabbing goodies from the maple tree at one end of the yard and flying way the hell back across to the other where she waited high up in a locust to be daintily fed. So I think this nesting thing is on.