We attempt our greatest right here at Bird of the Week to not anthropomorphize our topics an excessive amount of. Hmm, okay, that may not be true. What’s maybe more true is that we attempt to not anthropomorphize primarily based on nothing. Any good or evil, socialist, or cop-hating character traits we bestow are accomplished so with cautious consideration of a fowl’s precise tendencies. It’s a tragedy we’ll never know what they’re thinking, however we will attempt.
What we can know is what’s occurring in human brains (form of), and whereas I don’t know a lot, I do know this: geese are for adults. Let me again up a second. Birds, on the whole, are a fascination that appears to solely infiltrate the minds of these beneath 5 years old and over 30—however geese are a selected subset of that group. For the primary a part of your grownup life, you go about your days considering of geese as commonplace, alongside crows, pigeons, robins, and the like. Then at some point you get up, and QUACK, geese are probably the most enchanting, fascinating, gloriously goofy creatures on your entire planet. Ducks, fairly abruptly, ascend to god-tier, and you’re left questioning what was occurring in your poor mind for all these years.
This is true for me. I’m ashamed to say that my gateway drug to geese was none aside from the Central Park “Hot Duck”—a Mandarin duck that took Manhattan by storm in 2018 and 2019. I used to be so besotted with this mysterious, good-looking little man that I sought him out myself. I nonetheless depend it among the many thrills of my life to have stood on the shores of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in full rain, chasing after a duck with a bunch of different psychotic New Yorkers. Look at him!
Despite this ardor and fandom, one way or the other, Bird of the Week has seen an alarming dearth of duck posts. It’s been so unhealthy that within the feedback of our 2022 Bird of the Year put up, a reader explicitly requested for “duck representation in 2023”! Soon after, Jack delivered a mea culpa within the type of a killer put up on the sensational hooded merganser, however dammit if we did not drop the ball AGAIN. We did not ship one other duck throughout the entirety of 2023. I can’t clarify it, however guess what? The madness stops as we speak.
🚨🦆IT’S DUCK MONTH AT DISCOURSE BLOG 🦆🚨
Jack and I have been completely breathless this week as he found duck after duck worthy of inclusion in our celebration. The geese of this world are heckin good, and we will’t wait to present them their due.
For this week, I merely went with the fowl that drew the loudest gasp after I noticed it: the freckled duck.
Why proceed to do something when this creature is bobbing across the planet???
The freckled duck is also referred to as the monkey duck or oatmeal duck amongst different issues, which is humorous as a result of these names make zero sense when “freckled duck” is sitting proper there. Alas. Freckled geese are native to Australia, have a chic upturned invoice, and populate freshwater marshes and creeks, ideally with dense foliage for canopy.
One of the good issues in regards to the freckled duck is that the male’s invoice turns into varied shades of good purple on the base throughout mating season. Now, a number of male birds sport fancy colours and elaborate shows as a part of the mating ritual, however an precise transformation centered instantly on the beak may be very highly effective. The males with the deepest shades of purple are those who’re most dominant, and almost definitely to breed. Now I don’t wish to put our cowl boy on the spot right here, but when that’s all to be believed, the duck above is attractive as hell and sure has many generations of ducklings spawned below his belt. Well accomplished, dude!
It have to be famous that the feminine freckled duck can also be beautiful. The class!
Freckled geese are rare and classified as endangered, however there’s some excellent news: in the previous couple of a long time, conservation and breeding efforts have been established to assist bolster populations in live performance with academic and regulation enforcement efforts to halt the hunting of those excellent, salt and pepper fluffies.
These birds are what I’d name supermodel geese in that they excel each in nonetheless images and in motion—on the runway of life, if you’ll. Like come on, I would love a 24 hour livecam of this scene, please:
They glide, they dive and stick their little butts within the air, they putter round in a mellow-yet-determined style. The geese are ducking so arduous and doing it so nicely.
To be trustworthy, there’s not a lot else to say in regards to the freckled duck, however why waste phrases anyway after we can simply take pleasure in its glory?
But if that’s not sufficient, the San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library has this fact sheet which comprises the sorts of descriptions I’d think about a duck would write! Gems like “Waddle-like walk, similar to most ducks. Fly with neck low—distinctive ‘hunched appearance.’ Run on water’s surface during takeoff,” and “Distinctive coppery sheen in flight. Underparts paler.” That’s duck prose if I’ve ever heard it.
For now I’ll go away you with this: Make manner for (freckled) ducklings!
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