Pavlov's Ducks: Ding dong ducks commit lunch time crime

August 27, 2019 6:40 AM

Bishop's Palace in Wells, Somerset has a 150 year old tradition of swans training humans to provide bread on demand at the ring of a bell, but recently ducks have been muscling in on the bell ringing action. Keep up with the latest swan news here.
posted by quacks like a duck (9 comments total)

I don't know why that cygnet was called an "ugly duckling" in the story. Cygnets are pretty dang cute, even more so when they're ringing bells.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:07 AM on August 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

No luck catching them swans, then?
posted by tclark at 7:28 AM on August 27, 2019 [4 favorites]

Post Your Animal Month just keeps on giving. Nice first post, quacks like a duck!
posted by cortex at 8:47 AM on August 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to work at a place that has to provide regular updates to its Swan News webpage.
posted by PussKillian at 8:51 AM on August 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

My grandmother used to live on a very deep property that backed onto a creek. Wild mallards made their home along the creek. Every once in a while, she'd go down to the creek to feed the ducks. Eventually, the ducks came to dislike the randomness of such occurrences and decided to take matters into their own hands (wings). I guess they must have watched her and followed her to the house. In order to get her attention, they began knocking at her screen door with their beaks.

I have no idea exactly how or why this occurred or how long it took for the ducks to develop this practice. But by the time I came around and was aware enough as a toddler to appreciate what was going on around me, it was a common site to have ducks showing up at her front door looking for food. I do know, however, this isn't anything she taught them or would have even considered teaching them.
posted by sardonyx at 9:09 AM on August 27, 2019 [6 favorites]

I want to see the parrot that surfs the net.
posted by elizilla at 10:54 AM on August 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Clarise Good! The Surfing Parrot (on the Internet).
posted by cenoxo at 6:55 PM on August 27, 2019

Of course I meant "sight" not "site".
posted by sardonyx at 8:42 PM on August 27, 2019

my name is swan
and wen its brite
and the string thing
is at my height
i pull on it
wif my white hed
they throw it down,
i lik the bred.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:20 AM on August 28, 2019 [7 favorites]