Attack Ducks!!!!

This video was sent to me by Pat Adams.

Apparently, birds don't always like to be messed with. An ostrich for example is reported to be able to kill an attacker with its powerful kick!

Geese are well known barnyard "guard dogs". Even ducks, if you get right up in their face, can act aggressively.

Just remember, a bird in the hand ..... that can be a little too close for comfort!

I Turned Into A Duck!!!!!!!!!!

In Stuttgart, it looked like the Geese had run the Ducks away. There were fields full of wild geese and some scattered ducks.

There were lots of booths at the arts & crafts fair. They even sold home made root beer.

People were driving their cars .... when they saw something of interest, they would park. Some turned right into parking lots, others turned right into fields. I turned right into a duck!!!

The Nose Knows

Where's the Keys????? Quack!!!
The nose ... or in this case .... the bill knows.
Here at the duck farm, one way to keep track of keys is to always put them in the same place. A great place is on the duck's bill.
When the keys are not on the duck's bill, you know that someone has ducked out for a spell.
Using a french accent, the situation is described, "Zee kiss are on zee bill."

Not EggZackly a Duck

Winged objects are supposed to be symetrical for some reason. Left wing and Right wing. Wings are not quite a true ying & yang thing .... otherwise there would be something more like wing and anti-wing .... probably what they have in things like parachutes. Airplanes and ducks are supposed to have both wings attached to the fuselage.

This video demonstrates one advantage of horsepower as compared to duck power. While it is not quite possible for the airplane to suspend itself in the air by its propeller, it can certainly slow itself down a lot.

Mostly what happens is this ..... if God thinks you are supposed to wash dishes tomorrow, you're gonna make it through today!

Quack,Quack!

FYI vs FAO

FYI is "For Your Information"
FAO is, among other things, "Food & Agriculture Organization"
FAO is an agency of the United Nations.
The UN Report, “Mapping H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza risk in Southeast Asia: ducks, rice and people” claims:
26 March 2008 – Ducks, rice and people – and not chickens – have emerged as the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam ....

FAO estimates that approximately 90 per cent of the world's more than 1 billion domestic ducks are in Asia, with about 75 per cent of that in China and Viet Nam. Thailand has about 11 million ducks.

Through the use of satellite mapping, researchers looked at a number of different factors, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and geography, and found a strong link between duck grazing patterns and rice cropping intensity.
In Thailand, for example, the proportion of young ducks in flocks was found to peak in September-October; these rapidly growing young ducks can therefore benefit from the peak of the rice harvest in November-December.
“These peaks in congregation of ducks indicate periods in which there is an increase in the chances for virus release and exposure, and rice paddies often become a temporary habitat for wild bird species,” the agency said in a news release.

So .......... I guess that means it is OK for me to go to the Wings Over the Prairie duck jamboree in Stuttgart, Arkansas this Thanksgiving ..... Stuttgart is covered with rice fields and WILD (not domestic) ducks. First in the nation for rice production in 1994, Arkansas farmers harvested 1.4 million acres of rice, with 43 percent of the total U.S. rice acreage. Arkansas is home to the world's largest rice processing and exporting company, Riceland Foods, Inc., a farmer-owned cooperative at Stuttgart, now a Fortune 500 company.

Obviously ducks and rice go together like raising rabbits and fishing worms. The UN isn't trying to get rid of ducks, rice, or people. Instead, the findings of the research can help target control efforts and replace indiscriminate mass vaccination. So if you are Catholic and planning to go to church/mass this Sunday, you don't have to worry about mass vaccination.

Rice grows in rice paddies ..... swamps .... not exactly California beaches & California grills.
The Beach Boys are famous for a tune "Wouldn't it Be Nice"
The Duck Farm parody "Wooden Beans & Rice" ..... should it have been "Ducks & Riacin"?

Wouldn't beans & rice be so much colder
If we didn't heat them up so long
And wouldn't beans and rice go good together
Even if we ate them all month long.

Salt and pepper make it that much better
Beans & rice go really good together.

Wouldn't beans & rice be good to bake up
In the place of having a beef stew
And after having cooked all day together
Heaping platefuls might just pass right through

In a skillet make a plate for two
If the beans are old they'll taste like new
Wooden beans & rice.

Maybe in the sink we wash with soap and spray away the goo
Otherwise the stuff will stick and it will act like glue
And who'd want to carry
A plate that is hairy
Wooden beans & rice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wooden beans & rice.

DUKW .... Duck Pilot

This is a DUKW kind of duck truck.
It was invented by a different Roderick, Roderick Stephens, for use in World War II.
You can read more about it at various links such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUKW

This particular one is at Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA
I drove the one in Branson, Missouri out on the lake and got a Duck Pilots License.

You can inflate and deflate the tires while you're driving. (Deflate the tires for driving on sandy beaches and increase the pressure for normal roads)

Arctic Ducks .... a spy in our midst?

Is this a secret agent duck? If so, it is a very secret agent duck. The one with orange feet, if it is a duck, is a duck ..... disguised as a goose, impersonating an arctic duck.
Gary Leers claims that arctic ducks ( sometimes called sanguine penguins) are rather vicious .... savage biters. He says arctic ducks have sharp, cutting bills.
On the other hand, this may just be a formal avian party playing "Duck - Duck - Goose - Duck".
Quack, Quack!