Friday, May 23, 2008

Strange Duck Behavior

It feels like something out of a Gary Larson cartoon.

The local ducks have suddenly learned to hang out on rooftops. I've lived in the same house for 18 years, and I've never seen this before, but suddenly, this year, more and more ducks and geese are perching and even sometimes nesting on rooftops.

Here are two pictures I took yesterday of a duck on the house next door, a good 20 feet above the ground. It looks like he is surveying the territory prior to swooping down and nabbing some unsuspecting child.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! A Blog really interesting. Best regards.

Anonymous said...

I've had a similar experience (and taken similar photos of a Goose and a
Duck

andrew said...

Ducks in KW are like a locust invasion. I remember when I roomed in Village 1 (do they still even call it that?) someone once left a trail of breadcrumbs into the cafeteria after propping the outside door open. It was like an aviary. From hell.

dot said...

> I've never seen this before, but
> suddenly, this year, more and more ducks
> and geese are perching and even
> sometimes nesting on rooftops.

Hum.., I don't think this is totally new: One of my first memory of Waterloo, more than 4 years ago, was a goose perched on the Human Ressource building all day long, several days in a row. True, I never saw a duck like this :)

Anonymous said...

Here's a 'fun' bird story:
Last weekend I walked by a neighbor and noticed she was placing paper bags over the outside mirrors of her car. I stopped to ask why and she said that birds had been landing on the mirrors and pooping all over them. She also mentioned that neighbors' cars across the street had been 'attacked' too.

Last Wednesday, I got in my car and noticed that the outside mirrors were *plastered* with guano and that portions of the windows nearby had pooh brushed all over.

What happened is that there is at least one insanely territorial bird that found its reflection in these mirrors and is attacking its image. It seems the bird has learned to recognize that car mirrors contain rivals and now might be actively seeking mirrors in order to fight competitors.

Just pray those ducks don't take a competitive interest in your car mirrors...

paul01 said...

More fun with mirrors.

At my old workplace the ravens would constantly visit truck mirrors and nibble away at the rubber around the mirror. Ended up looking like a nail biter was at work.

Anonymous said...

last year I lived in a four story building, next to a small duck pond. Ducks sometimes walked the roof tops, lookin' like poultry gargoyles.

Minnesotan said...

Quote: What happened is that there is at least one insanely territorial bird that found its reflection in these mirrors and is attacking its image.

LOLOL, I had this happen with a red winged blackbird. It would spend hours fighting with its reflection in my windows. Absolutely ridiculous since you'd think it would eventually register after bouncing off a hard surface time and again that something is not right. I guess that's why bird-brain is an insult ....

Come to think of it, I also had this happen once with a red-shouldered hawk too.