We attempt our greatest right here at Bird of the Week to not anthropomorphize our topics an excessive amount of. Hmm, okay, which 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 performed so with cautious consideration of a chook’s precise tendencies. It’s a tragedy we’ll never know what they’re thinking, however we are able to attempt.
What we can know is what’s taking place 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, generally, are a fascination that appears to solely infiltrate the minds of these beneath 5 years old and over 30—however geese are a specific subset of that group. For the primary a part of your grownup life, you go about your days pondering of geese as commonplace, alongside crows, pigeons, robins, and the like. Then sooner or later you get up, and QUACK, geese are essentially the most enchanting, fascinating, gloriously goofy creatures on your complete planet. Ducks, fairly all of the sudden, ascend to god-tier, and you might be left questioning what was taking place 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 rely 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 dangerous 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 right this moment.
🚨🦆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 are able to’t wait to provide them their due.
For this week, I merely went with the chook 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 sublime upturned invoice, and populate freshwater marshes and creeks, ideally with dense foliage for canopy.
One of the best issues concerning the freckled duck is that the male’s invoice turns into numerous shades of good pink on the base throughout mating season. Now, loads of male birds sport fancy colours and elaborate shows as a part of the mating ritual, however an precise transformation targeted immediately on the beak may be very highly effective. The males with the deepest shades of pink are those who’re most dominant, and almost definitely to breed. Now I don’t need to put our cowl boy on the spot right here, but when that’s all to be believed, the duck above is sexy as hell and sure has many generations of ducklings spawned below his belt. Well performed, dude!
It should be famous that the feminine freckled duck can also be beautiful. The magnificence!
Freckled geese are rare and classified as endangered, however there’s some excellent news: in the previous couple of many years, conservation and breeding efforts have been established to assist bolster populations in live performance with academic and legislation 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 photographs 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 vogue. The geese are ducking so exhausting and doing it so properly.
To be sincere, there’s not a lot else to say concerning 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 accommodates the sorts of descriptions I might 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 approach for (freckled) ducklings!
A reminder: you may try our full Bird of the Week listing right here, and get in contact together with your chook strategies at [email protected].
