Everyone sends me duck stuff. This was my favorite yesterday, the sweet story of a dad who goes out of his way to make sure his duckling guests make it safely to the water.
Second: My Dad absolutely LOVES wildlife and birds especially. He's been a member of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for my non-UK lovelies) all his life, since he was a child (he's in his sixties now).
— Emma Newman (@EmApocalyptic) April 27, 2021
So last year, it was a bit of a saga. He was amazed she chose to nest on his balcony, delighted in fact, and watched over her and the nest during the first lockdown. Honestly, it was a gift for him too. He rearranged the planters on the balcony for safety…
— Emma Newman (@EmApocalyptic) April 27, 2021
This is my favorite part (and please read the entire thread here, it’s long but so joyful)
Imagine a man in his sixties COMMANDO CRAWLING ACROSS HIS OWN LIVING ROOM to get to the phone without frightening a nesting duck. That's… that's probably all you need to know about my Dad, really. He is that good.
— Emma Newman (@EmApocalyptic) April 27, 2021
And now she has a video!
In my world, it seems just like that, we have a flock:
Well, not exactly “just like that.” It’s been some work and a lot of worry on my part. But this is real progress:
That is Mabel and Nikki* snoozing peacefully together. This is huge because this is the first time Mabel has let the duckteens sleep anywhere near her outside. And that it is Nikki* is significant. Nikki has challenged Mabel from day one outside.
You can read more here (and all the photos, videos are here)
And finally, this guy convinced me to get a TikTok account, he has a series of “dogs”:
@jauncydev If dog breeds were people part 3!
@jauncydev If dog breeds were people part 5
@jauncydev Reply to @artemistheaussie
*I am still wavering between this sweety being Nikki or Nick – the vocalizations are not strong, a good indicator of a drake, but there is a LOT of vocalization which is a hen trait. I suppose I’ll just have to wonder until a drake feather shows up or not in a few weeks (usually 8-12 weeks of age).
Drake with drake feather (that little curled feather)
What’s happening in your world today?
Respite open thread
The Fall Of The White Male Novelist
TaMara (HFG)
I have been promising my dogs a walk for the last hour, so now I must deliver. I’ll be back in case there are any duckteen questions. LOL
BruceFromOhio
Yay, Nikki and Mabel! May real peace now ensue.
The dog impressions are hilarious.
Fair Economist
I’m a fan of hers (read both of Newman’s book series) and saw the thread yesterday. But not the video, and it was a treat. I loved the bit about the man having a smoke on his balcony and seeing a bucket of ducklings go by.
Steeplejack (phone)
The TikTok videos don’t play here, at least for me (Android phone, Samsung browser). Seems like you have to have a TikTok account.
John Cole
And you all mocked me for putting up a tarp so my baby birds could slide to safety.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
The tale of Operation Mallard made me smile. Happy for such things to happen in this world. Thank you.
TaMara (HFG)
@Steeplejack (phone): Well that’s interesting. I could always watch them, but to embed them I needed an account and I wanted you guys to see them, so I made an account.
Anyone else having problems, let me know – maybe I missed a step uploading them.
Steeplejack (phone)
@John Cole:
We don’t deserve you, Cole!
Steeplejack (phone)
@TaMara (HFG):
I’ll check on my Windows box later.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
This Modern World, a Facebook post in a helpful local lawyers’ group I’m in:
I have heard flushes, but no streams. I feel deprived.
TaMara (HFG)
I have to say our walk was great fun today. We met our FedEx guy on the walk and he always stops to talk to the dogs. They really enjoy the attention.
Before the pandemic, he would ring the bell to hang with them for a minute when delivering their food.
I look forward to that day again…
And it was nice to talk vaccination success with him – good to see that, at least locally, FedEx helped their drivers get the shots.
Fair Economist
TaMara, what’s the plan if Nikki is Nick? I assume you don’t want to become a duck breeder.
Jeffro
Rudy G going on Tucker’s show tonight…there is not enough popcorn in all the world…
TaMara (HFG)
@Fair Economist: I collect eggs every morning, so other than being fertilized, no chances of baby ducks here.
Fair Economist
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I understand your feelings. Streaming video is pretty standard these days in the developed world.
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara (HFG):
No follow up to Baby Shark? ☹️
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): John Cole
Raymond Shawis the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.misterpuff
Who doesn’t love the Drake?
Barbara
This happened on the balcony outside my company’s office (11th floor), and they worked with a local wildlife group to make sure the ducklings got safely launched. Once when I was driving to work down Constitution Avenue, all traffic came to a halt because a mother and her ducklings were slowly making their way across to one of the various bodies of water in the mall area. Yes, I am sure most of those commuting had read Make Way for Ducklings at one time or another. Wish I had gotten a picture.
trollhattan
Operation Mallard is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Don’t know who’s more charming, duck dad or the narrator daughter.
Mary G
Betty
@TaMara (HFG): No problem on my Kindle Fire. The impressions are really funny. I was waiting for a Doberman.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I read through the thread and then we watched the video. And now I’m subscribed to her YouTube channel so I can remember to catch Operation Mallard 2: Electric Boogaloo.
But all through it I kept asking, “What was the plan going to be, Mrs. Mallard?”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Speaking of ducks, another duck I found out about today. Google “Long Boi”, the world’s tallest mallard.
Here’s a Twitter picture.
Eunicecycle
I loved the story too (about the duck elevator) but was a little insulted when the daughter mentioned her father was in his sixties! I figured from reading up to then he was probably in his late 80s or something. But I guess to her, sixties is old.
CaseyL
I am about to burst with all of the wonderful cuteness you’ve shared with us today.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Lemme guess, Rudy’s troubles are all the fault of cancellation feminist Jewish Antifa.
zhena gogolia
@TaMara (HFG):
They’re hilarious! Does he do French bulldog?
ThresherK
“Mrs. Mallard” is so veddy British I imagine her wearing a bonnet and carrying a wicker basket to market.
OzarkHillbilly
My wood cutter just pulled up my drive and gave me a pound of morels. Guess what I’m having for dinner?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Eunicecycle: Sometimes I do age math, like realizing that the Dad I remember when I was a little kid was a guy in his 30s. My own 30s seem impossibly long ago.
I never feel better after doing those calculations.
TaMara (HFG)
Find someone who loves you the way Joe loves Jill
Ken
Enable safe search first.
OzarkHillbilly
@TaMara (HFG): So, you’re an abortionist.
Martin
So my duck story, passed on to me.
My grandparents lived on Long Island in a tiny 600 sq ft house that my grandfather steadily expanded (added 2nd floor, and dug a basement). Around the house they had various vegetable gardens including one next to the side door. When you went into the side door, there was a half flight up stairs straight ahead up into the house and a ¾ flight of stairs to the left which went into the basement.
My grandmother one day propped open the side door so she could retrieve her gardening tools from the basement and on the way back up the stairs was greeted by two ducklings (my grandfather would indicate their size with his fingers, indicating they would fit in a coffee cup). My grandmother dropped her gardening stuff, and retreated screaming into the basement. See, my grandmother had a proper phobia of birds – anything with feathers. A hat with a feather would receive pretty similar treatment. And these two baby ducklings had her trapped. She calmed down a bit and tried to assess the situation and engineer her escape, she tried verbally shooing them back out the door, but one took this as a sign of friendship and jumped down a stair. And now the risk had substantially escalated. The duckling could never get back up the step, and had nowhere to go but down – toward her. She hurriedly erected a barrier of cans and cereal boxes to prevent the ducklings from making it all the way down (the basement was the pantry that the kitchen was too small to accommodate – they were also avid canners). And apparently the panicked screaming didn’t stop during this entire incident.
My grandfather had run to the store, so he wasn’t there to rescue her. She was alone, fortifications built, a veritable modern Verdun, stalemated against her mortal enemy – two baby ducklings. She remained trapped in the basement, continually scoping out the movements of her opponent to make sure they weren’t scheming a way to breach the maginot line she’d constructed (yeah, I know, different war). A good hour and a half spent, trapped, back against the wall, no hope of escape before my grandfather returned from the store and heard her screaming. He found one of the ducklings out in the driveway, who had grown bored of the battle, and retrieved the other from the stairs where it was trapped, and carried both home – a neighbor a number of houses up the street. Their doggo brother hadn’t yet learned how to keep them herded to the yard, a skill he’d later acquire. With the mortal threat having retreated, the barricades then disassembled and returned to the shelves they came from, my grandmother spent the rest of the day nursing various cocktails.
Years later the neighbor was still there, still with two ducks (different ducks) and a beagle (different doggo). They were all buds. As a kid I’d go visit the ducks, and then undergo a thorough inspection by my grandfather in the driveway to ensure a stray feather didn’t make it home with me.
catclub
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Don’t the MORE helpful local lawyers tell their clients not to pee while on zoom?
trollhattan
@ThresherK:
Yup, starting with pronouncing it mah-larrd.
Not surprised to read she’s an audio book narrator. We hosted a classmate of our daughter’s, coincidentally another Emma, they seem well stocked with Emmas in the UK, who has a similar soft, posh English accent. I’d ask her random questions just to hear it some days.
Martin
On other topics, I thought the speech last night was really good. I like the shift from the GOP framing of socialism vs capitalism to Bidens authoritarianism vs democracy is exceptionally good, and will pay dividends for Democrats if they stick with it. I thought Biden spoke more bluntly to the GOP than you would normally have in a speech like this.
trollhattan
@Martin:
And I thought needle phobia was bad. Trapped, by ducklings. Boffo story, box office poison.
Baud
@TaMara (HFG):
I bet Jill even lets Joe hold her hand sometimes.
TaMara (HFG)
And there’s video:
John Cole
@ThresherK: The emphasis on lard is what makes it the best
The Dangerman
Duck, duck, can I please get a goose (yes, yes, I know;). How am I going to run around in a circle without a damn goose (yes, yes, I REALLY know)?
ETA: TH, I disappeared for a long time; did your daughter, IIRC, end up at Poly?
J R in WV
@John Cole:
Pretty sure “you all” didn’t do that. I may have snickered a little bit here are my laptop… no mockery, tho!!
redoubtagain
Should be ennobled as the 1st Earl of Mallard
rikyrah
@John Cole:
????
TriassicSands
The rope and bucket are so yesterday. Next time, Poppa Duck needs to supply 11 little parachutes. Why shouldn’t the little ducklings start life by BASE jumping?