Of Ducks and Other Things

[Outdated]

Just a Saturday morning walk in the park.

 

[Ella Spell]

Ducks are my best animal. ^

These beauties were just enjoying my company.

 

[elgat0verde]

Those are some beautiful pictures @Outdated and @Ella Spell

 

[Fino]

I see ducks are finally getting the recognition they deserve.

 

[SusanLR]

Funny how the Coots look scolding. Especially the Gallinule! Great expressions.
There seem to be more Muscovy and Mallards around the ponds here this year than ever before.
This guy wanted attention:

 

[Forest Cat]

I have heard that Australian ducks are carnivores. And venomous.

 

[Outdated]

Funny how the Coots look scolding. Especially the Gallinule! Great expressions.

I never saw any of these birds when I was a kid, they were coming close to extinction here. When the English arrived they wiped out most of the native habitats in favour of manicured lawns and pine trees and roses. Things that made it feel more like England.

Now it's gone the other way and they've been rewilding a lot of areas. That park has a beautiful and quite large lake but it's not very photogenic any more because it's surrounded by tall grasses and sedges, as it should be.

And of course people will always be people. There's signs everywhere telling people to not feed the ducks bread but most people just ignored the signs. So now there's high definition security cameras everywhere and if you're caught feeding bread to the ducks the RSPCA will take you to court for animal cruelty.

Bit by bit my world is becoming a better place.

 

[Outdated]

I have heard that Australian ducks are carnivores. And venomous.

Poor @Forest Cat must have a rather simplistic view of the world. It's not just the Aussie ducks, it's all of them.

Yes, ducks are carnivores which is why you should not feed them bread.
Yes ducks are venomous, the drakes anyway, they have a nasty poison spike in their wings.

 

[Ella Spell]

There's a couple of mallards who live in my neighbour's swimming pool for two weeks a year.

 

[Rodafina]

Poor @Forest Cat must have a rather simplistic view of the world. It's not just the Aussie ducks, it's all of them.

Yes, ducks are carnivores which is why you should not feed them bread.
Yes ducks are venomous, the drakes anyway, they have a nasty poison spike in their wings.

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.

 

[Outdated]

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.

Facts. We used to breed ducks for food when I was little.

 

[Forest Cat]

Poor @Forest Cat must have a rather simplistic view of the world. It's not just the Aussie ducks, it's all of them.

Yes, ducks are carnivores which is why you should not feed them bread.
Yes ducks are venomous, the drakes anyway, they have a nasty poison spike in their wings.

I have mallards in a river here every summer, I haven't seen them take down a deer and eat it but now I wonder....

 

[Rodafina]

I’m on a mission to photograph some ducks today. This thread has inspired me. Hopefully I can report back with a photograph later.

 

[Outdated]

It's so much easier, and cheaper, these days with digital cameras. With the old film cameras photography was a very expensive hobby, every time you clicked the shutter it cost you, so you would be very selective about taking photos.

This morning I took about 180 photos and I'm happy with about a dozen of them, that's not a bad morning.

 

[GypsyMoth]

I used to like duck, but the last time I made it, it didn't taste so good. Oh, I drained the grease all right as it cooked, and the texture was okay. It just didn't taste anything like when my mom made duck. Think I'll pass on it again this Christmas...

Sorry. I'm very practical like that. I see ducks yabbering at me and I'll yabber back about how good they'll taste in the oven and they never take me seriously.

 

[Outdated]

Sorry. I'm very practical like that. I see ducks yabbering at me and I'll yabber back about how good they'll taste in the oven and they never take me seriously.

They're not really all that practical to raise compared to chooks either, they eat a lot and there's not a lot of meat on them. Mum liked duck eggs for making cakes though.

Don't feed your ducks fish, the eggs will taste fishy.

 

[Rodafina]

Well, it took all day and the ducks were surprisingly elusive to me. But I finally found one and the little guy gave me a chance to work on my telephoto skills.

 

[Rodafina]

Duh, I forgot to share an image I captured of the most elusive and rare dragon duck.

 

[SusanLR]

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.

Neither could I.
I looked it up and did find the drakes have a poison spike and can be very aggressive.
They are omnivores and can and do eat meat as well as seeds and grain.
Don't think they would take down a deer.

 

[Outdated]

They are omnivores and can and do eat meat as well as seeds and grain.

I couldn't help exaggerating a little there, @Forest Cat thinks I have to battle vicious bilbies and evade dinner plate sized spiders just to check my mail in the morning.

The do require a higher protein diet than chooks though.