In Praise of Healthy Ducks
With Congress returning today for a "lame-duck" session, and the President remaining in office as a "lame duck", I thought I'd share a picture of my flock of happy, healthy Rouen ducks. The one with the green head is a drake, the male duck. Ducks are wonderful creatures. They squawk. They waddle. They love to play in the water. Nothing lame here.
I've heard that a support group for lame ducks is forming called D.O.N.A.L.D (Defense Of North American Lame Ducks) but they don't have their website up yet. They will be affiliated with D.A.F.F.I. (Ducks And Feathered Friends International.) Both organizations hope that when Barack Obama takes office, he will not be referred to as a sitting duck for his opponents.
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I cry fowl.
I don't see why anyone should be concerned about sitting ducks. Don't ducks have a constitutional right to sit?
Those guys look exactly like Mallards.
And holy crap is that water green. Reminds me of the local lake and its yearly algae bloom that makes it really stinky come August.
Rouens are domestic ducks that look like big Mallards. I think these are Mallards?
Duck experts care to chime in? All I know is they all taste AWESOME.
Arn't mallards just the name for the male ones? Or have I been misinformed....
Drake.
Mallard is the common name for the species (technically Anes platyrhynchos). Rouens are a domesticated version...bigger and often somewhat lighter colored than wild Mallards.
Male ducks are called drakes, female ducks are called hens.
Why a duck?
There's a whole whack of these at the lakelet next to EA Redwood Shores. I watched a badelynge grow up on my smoke breaks and they are indeed friendly to green water.
My favorite animal! There is a small lake near where I now live and where I almost daily pursue my favorite meditation: watching ducks. I get a blissful satisfaction from those guys and wherever I've been, over the years, I've managed to make friends with a good many of them. I've been godfather to numerous flocks of fuzz-balls and proudly watched them grow into fine healthy members of their species.
The great misanthropic poet Robinson Jeffers famously wrote, "I'd rather kill a man than a hawk." I won't go that far, of course, but I would certainly rather insult a man than a duck.
Healthy ducks for healthier lives!
I'm a bufflehead fan myself.
Harlequin Ducks FTW!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin_duck
MICHALERN:
Why not a duck?
We all think it's funny until we meet someone like Lemon, who really is differently abled.
http://www.lemontheduck.com/id9.html
Please, won't you think of teh ducks.
This pair of ducks decided to hang out in my brother's pool for about a week. They would fly off for food or if someone was in the pool. The rest of the time they made themselves at home. We were a little worried about the pool chemicals affecting them, but figured that they knew what they were doing...
We were a little worried about the pool chemicals affecting them
If pool chemicals were really toxic, Southern California would be littered with dead cats. Pool water is apparently much tastier than bowl water.
W.T.D.?
But tell us, would you support the right of a couple of ducks like this to marry?
http://flickr.com/photos/terriem/427654234/
Looking forward to hearing more about the "bills" coming before congress...
Rabbit season!
I think Obama is just trying to get all his ducks in row at this point.
Ah, this reminds me of my days at Ohio State, sitting at Mirror Lake watching my fellow students feed the oddly large ducks mac n cheese from the nearby cafe.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/2963384263/
The situation is more colorful than that. Don't forget about the study "The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae) by C.W. (Kees) Moeliker", which you can find at
Sorry about leaving out that URL for the duck study. It's http://tinyurl.com/624szh