Our second Monday night summer picnic of the year was marred by violence.
It started out so nicely, with our little meal of sandwiches and chips, shared by two brave ducks who ate out of our hands, and a seagull. It was all nice and peaceful. Little baby ducks swimming in the pond with their mamas. And then, a commotion. We walked down to see what was going on, and there were two big white ducks, holding another smaller white duck under the water and pecking at him. He was fighting and struggling to get away, and they were on top of him and actually holding his head under the water like they were trying to drown him. It went on for a few minutes, and they were not letting him up. I was sure they were going to drown him. So we did what any red blooded American duck lover would do. We pelted the bully ducks with rocks til they swam away. Little white duck struggled out of the water and ran up on shore. He waddled around for a while, in a bit of a daze. The back of his head was all red and bloody where the bullies were picking on him. A group of friendly brown ducks ran up to him and kind of surrounded him and walked with him til he finally got back in the water.
Poor duck. Why did they choose him to pick on? Did he steal their bread or kill one of their babies? He looked like a pretty nice duck to me, but what do I know? Maybe he deserved it.
Anyhow, we learned something new tonight. We never knew that ducks could be homicidal.
In spite of the near death experience, the Monday night picnics are one of the best ideas we ever had. Rejuvenating and relaxing and a great way to spend the first night of the week.
I pretty sure you witness an attempted duck gang rape. I'm serious. I lived in apartments where we had those little buggers and it is violent and awful and continues for many months. The females do anything they can do get away, but the males are relentless. They typically pluck the feathers from the neck until it's bloody. I could always tell the females because they'd be limping and had bloody necks. Makes you wonder what God was thinking with that one. Sorry it ruined your picnic :).
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