About Those Ducks
June 30, 2004 1:19 PM   Subscribe

Um, about those ducks...
posted by brownpau (25 comments total)
 
*quack*
posted by leotrotsky at 1:58 PM on June 30, 2004


Oooh! Oooh! *raises hand*

The same thing happened to me last week. I was over my SIL's house and kept hearing a duck quack really loudly. After about 15 minutes I looked out the front door and saw a duck down the street, waddling back and forth, quacking her little tail off. There was something about her manner that made me think she was stressed out about something. I opened the front door to hear better, and she heard the door open, and came waddling towards me. I went outside with my SIL and my nephew, and we followed her towards a grate, where we heard some faint tweeting, or chirping, or whatever it is that baby ducklings do. Maybe it's quacking. As soon as we got over the grate, the ducklings fell silent. But not the mother - there was no way anyone could possibly ignore that sound. My nephew lifted up the grate and got the ducklings and put them one by one with the mother. She was counting them, you could tell, because the quacking stopped the instant he put the 7th duckling down next to her. They all waddled quickly away and probably fell down another grate further down the street.
posted by iconomy at 2:06 PM on June 30, 2004


Where do you people live that you have stray ducks roaming the streets?
posted by ChasFile at 2:08 PM on June 30, 2004




ChasFile: Probably urban areas around parks with water.
posted by thebabelfish at 2:10 PM on June 30, 2004


Chasfile, I live about 20 mins outside Portland, OR. In the last week or so I have seen squirrels, rabbits, snakes, hawks and a blue heron in my backyard. This area is rather rural, though when I lived in a more urban area closer to town, I saw all of these except blue herons. One of the nice things about Oregon, even in a city of 1-2 million, you're never more than a 10 minute drive away from nature/wild areas.

Is it possible all the ducks fell down drains where you live chasfile :)
posted by efalk at 2:18 PM on June 30, 2004


Cool. More ducks, less Spidey and Jeri Ryan!

That's so cute how the duck walked up to you, iconomy, practically asking for help, heh...
What's a "SIL"?
posted by Shane at 2:30 PM on June 30, 2004


Nevermind. SIL.
posted by Shane at 2:33 PM on June 30, 2004


what the...?

I just saw a guy on tv rescuing ducks from a sewer within the last few days...is this an epidemic? I think it was the local salt lake city news. what's going on?
posted by jacobsee at 2:46 PM on June 30, 2004


Ducks are getting dumber. I blame Bush.
posted by maudlin at 2:58 PM on June 30, 2004


Where do you live that you can lift the grate. That's the question. And if you can lift the grate, why hasn't it been stolen? It's all so confusing.
posted by Outlawyr at 3:10 PM on June 30, 2004


It's weird how so many internet stories, both true and untrue come from various car forums.
Is that where everyone who isn't on metafilter hangs out?
posted by milovoo at 3:13 PM on June 30, 2004


maudlin - your comment totally cracked me up. Thanks!
posted by synapse at 3:15 PM on June 30, 2004


Don't tell Scalia.
posted by homunculus at 3:42 PM on June 30, 2004


it's called springtime, look into it!

I also had some ducks stranded at the end of a convoluted cul-de-sac. They basically took up residence, and have been here roaming pools and back yards for about two months.

First there were nine ducks...now four. Cruel fate!
posted by plexiwatt at 3:55 PM on June 30, 2004


And if you can lift the grate, why hasn't it been stolen?

Who would steal a grate?
posted by mr_roboto at 3:57 PM on June 30, 2004


I live in a small town in PA, for whoever asked. The grates are really heavy, but not heavy enough for a 20 yr old 6' 3", 230 lb. guy to lift. No one has ever stolen anything around here that I know of, except a bike, once. I'm not sure why you'd want to steal a grate anyway (on preview, what mr_robato said). I guess, because it's there would be the correct answer?

Shane, yes, it was cute! She kept going from one of us to the other, like a dog would do. When my nephew went down the...er...hole thingy, she stopped paying any attention to me and stood right next to him and quacked right at him the whole time, like she was giving him orders.
posted by iconomy at 4:00 PM on June 30, 2004


Who would steal a grate?

Who wouldn't? Actually, kids would. They might just throw it in the woods, but they sure would steal it.
posted by smackfu at 4:57 PM on June 30, 2004


I might or might not have stolen a grate once.
posted by troutfishing at 4:14 AM on July 1, 2004


I rescued a full grown duck last month, it had managed to get its head trapped between two posts and couldn't lift itself up to get out again.
It does astonish me how tame some ducks are around humans, how the hell did they survive before supermarkets? I live near a nature reserve on a university campus and we've had 2 ducks living in a puddle (1-2 square feet) since the beginning of spring. The puddle is at the edge of a path where literally hundreds of people walk every day, and the ducks just sit there and quack.
posted by biffa at 4:28 AM on July 1, 2004


She kept going from one of us to the other, like a dog would do.

Heh! I think the females are the brave ones and the drakes are the cowards. I surprised three ducks eating in my back yard earlier this summer, and the two males moved immediately away, quacking at the female "What the hell, let's skiddoo!" The female just stood her ground and confidently, firmly squawked at me, "F*** off, I'm eating." I backed away politely and the drakes rejoined her.
posted by Shane at 6:11 AM on July 1, 2004


I moved a turtle off the highway yesterday. Where's my webpage?
posted by ColdChef at 7:46 AM on July 1, 2004


My husband and I tried to move a turtle that was about to attempt to cross a busy road. It was very large, and very mean. We repeatedly tried to lift the thing, but it threatened to have our fingers for lunch, so we had to leave it alone.

Turtles are assholes.
posted by Fenriss at 7:53 AM on July 1, 2004


Where do you people live that you have stray ducks roaming the streets?

I have ducks in the pond in the back yard. We sometimes get geese during migration...we've got 2 herons and some egrets (I think)...and it's fairly heavily populated right where I am. (As far as density of people to square mile....vast tracks of farm land, but hundreds of houses bunched together like grape clusters on the farmbelt vine.

We had the ducks in drain problem for a week or two and after about the 3rd time animal control had been called and people were climbing into the sewer system to rescue ducks, the HOA went through and put tiny grate mesh behind all the drain covers so that the ducklets can't fall through anymore. Yay!
posted by dejah420 at 10:23 AM on July 1, 2004


those grates can fetch a pretty penny on the black market.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 6:17 PM on July 1, 2004


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