http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Bush.jpg
A seemingly innocent bush, but we were unaware of the evil lurking within! My Dad brought the mower too close and with a fury like a thousand orcs something exploded out of the bush and almost decapitated him!
Dad "I was mowing the lawn and a duck came out of the bush"
Mom "Oooo, was it a male duck or a female duck?"
Dad "... it was a duck"
So it turned out we had a duck living in our backyard, what we assumed had been a pair of ducks resting before continuing their migration was instead "Honey, pull over, NOW!".
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Kerrigan.jpg
Either she just got used to us constantly checking in on the status of her babies, or she was confident of her ability to kill us all were the need to arise. After reading on the 'net that Mallards leave the nest for water mere hours after being born, the first image that came to mind was a horde of zerglings spawning and then running straight for the enemy base. So I decided to name the duck Kerrigan, with her babies just being referred to as the zerglings.
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Zerglings.jpg
And zerglings they were, ten of the cute, fuzzy little things. Surprisingly quiet though, had been expecting them to raise an unholy chorus of 'peep's and 'squeak's, but they silently followed their mother as they saught water.
Sadly, all they seemed to find was chainlink fence, Kerrigan wasn't about to fly over the fence while her zerglings went through, so after they did almost a complete circuit of our backyard it was decided that a plan was needed. There was only one way out of the backyard, the gate, but Kerrigan seemed to have no intention of going that way. So brooms were armed, and together we formed a wall and blocked off any directions not pointing towards the gate so she was only ever faced with one way to go.
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Escape.jpg
Success, they had escaped the backyard of doom.
Now the problem.
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Adventure.jpg
What we have here are ducks in the foreground, a road in the middleground and a large unhoused brush area with a rainditch providing the only thing even resembling a body of water for miles in any direction. So the goal was simple, get ducks over there to the water or brush, wherever Kerrigan wanted to rush. Turns out people are surprisingly understanding when you bodily block all lanes of traffic to allow a swarm of ducks to cross, not one honked horn or death threat.
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Success.jpg
We did it, we got them across the street!
After a couple minor mishaps
A) At one point, while rounding a corner, Kerrigan and five zerglings kept going, but the remaining five got confused at the corner and fell behind. They may not have very good eyesight but the baby ducks could hear well and after a short round of duckish Marco Polo (Quack quack... peep peep... quack quack... peep peep...) they were reunited
B) Curbs and baby ducks don't mix very well, namely they can't get up them. We had to herd the babies with brooms along the curb to a curbcut of someone's driveway, but we got them up there and the rush continued.
http://www.wintersroar.com/web/Victory.jpg
The rush was successful, once we were out in the tall grass Kerrigan cut a path for the rain water ditch. The slope was a bit difficult for the babies who mostly tumbled and rolled down out of control, which was both very cute and very worrying at the same time, but all landed at the bottom unharmed. They drifted away to victory and pie! Assume so at least.
Yay for the Duckies gaining freedom though! ^.^
You should've kept one.
quote:
From the book of Kaglaaz How'ler, chapter 3, verse 16:
I'm sure Mightion will have some fowl pun to make us all quack up.
Don't be Loony. Mightion is above offending us with such Daffy puns.
quote:
Everyone wondered WTF when Jensus wrote:
Ducks rock.You should've kept one.
Nah, between my Mom and Dad I think they have everything in the animal kingdom covered on allergies
But I don't have any, go figure
Only wildlife we've seen lately are the mud wasps who keep trying to build a nest on the screen of our balcony!*gets the Raid bandolier out*
quote:
Vorago's fortune cookie read:
a short round of duckish Marco Polo (Quack quack... peep peep... quack quack... peep peep...)
Awesome.
My junior high had this duck that came and landed in the courtyard... in the middle of the building. There's a tradition there or something or leading the duck and her ducklings into the school, through the parking lot, across the street, and into the lake every year. This is done by the 8th graders and a lot of posterboard. Very weird.
Rest well poor zergling 
quote:
Vorago spewed forth this undeniable truth:
Rest well poor zergling
Damn Ghost units.
quote:
Mr. Noxhil2? That sounds too much like Mr. Shit.
So... what are their chances of surviving in a storm drain
The ducklings? Very little, especially if it rains.
It's not something people hear about.
The other day, a line of ducklings followed their mother across the road here onbase. I was doing some duty driving and picking up some licenses and they just strolled across the road in front of me, oblivious as can be.
We even have 'duck crossing' signs across major thoroughfares in this city.
quote:
This one time, at Malbi camp:
I think from looking at the females wings you might not have a mallard but a Black duck, my field guides are packed up atm so I can't be 100% a picture of the male would be nice
Well, the male only hung around for a little less than a week after they first arrived, then he vanished, leaving the female there to tend to the nest for close to a month there, heh. Didn't take any pictures, didn't think anything of it at the time.
Pretty sure the male was a mallard at least, not any sort of authority on birds to say the least but the feathers on it's head were iridescent and green, had always just associated that with mallards... but also never really looked into the subject either.
The female had nifty patches of metallic blue on her wings though, really cool looking
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/tools/duckplum/mallard.htm
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/tools/duckplum/amblack.htm
quote:
And the Replyobots combined to form NullDevice, who roared:
Don't be Loony. Mightion is above offending us with such Daffy puns.
Aw... you're really bringing me down. I should present you a bill for my recovery. It isn't cheep, y'know! Your goose is cooked now!
quote:
Mightion Defensor probably says this to all the girls:
Aw... you're really bringing me down. I should present you a bill for my recovery. It isn't cheep, y'know! Your goose is cooked now!
Well, would you take a gander at that, feather you like it or not he's switched species.
quote:
Mightion Defensor wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
Aw... you're really bringing me down. I should present you a bill for my recovery. It isn't cheep, y'know! Your goose is cooked now!
See? High quality work there.
