TheBanyanTree: Duck fighting Sunday

[Peter Macinnis]

The ducks have landed.

I curse Jack Higgins for having taken the dramatic high ground, but then 
again, we have no eagle.

We do, however, have ducks, though quite why we have ducks remains a 
mystery.  Recent rains have boosted Sydney's water storage to 50% of 
capacity, adding 18 months' worth of wet stuff in a week, but water does 
not engender ducks -- spontaneous generation from sweaty old socks and 
mouldering leaf piles is no longer on the science curriculum.

Anyhow, we have ducks, or next door do, on their chimney.  Not flights 
of plaster ducks, such as one graced the living rooms of chintz-endowed 
homes, these are real live ducks.  Plural ducks, and then some -- five, 
in fact.

We have down-sized to a townhouse, an apartment on three levels, with 
storage and garage on the bottom, living space on the middle level, and 
bedrooms, bathroom and my study up top.  At my desk, I look out over a 
small balcony, northward for about 10 km or six miles (at a guess), 
seeing over the roofs of houses down the street.

Yesterday was Sunday, and a duck landed on top of the brick chimney next 
door.  The chimney has a cement cap, providing a flat space where 
several ducks can gather, but at first, there was just one.  Then 
another arrived, but it landed a little further down, entering the 
chimney to inspect it.

Web-footed birds are a little clumsy, and the house is vacant, up for 
sale at the moment.  I know the agents, and I had visions of sooty ducks 
tumbling down, so I watched, ready to call them and say "get up here 
fast", but there was some sort of internal scaffolding or something, and 
its head popped out the other side.

It flew out and then landed on top, but was promptly replaced inside the 
chimney by a third duck, whereupon one of the top ducks reached over the 
side and started pecking at the head of the interloper, which backed 
off, exposing its tail, which the other top duck tried to seize.  Back 
and forth it ran, then flew off in some desperation, chased by one of 
the top ducks.

A fourth duck then landed on top of the chimney and the two chased each 
other around the small square, in a most non-amorous way.  A fifth duck 
arrived and sat on the roof, but appeared only to be a spectator.

The sporadic attack-challenge-and-flight routine ran for about 15 
minutes, then they left.  Today, they were back.

One eagle may land, but while it may inspire admiration, it offers 
little entertainment thereafter.  When three or more ducks land in the 
name of brawling, life is amusing.

I am thinking of selling seats.

Certainly sir and madame, your seats are this way.  If sir and madame 
will wait until the new neighbours light their first fire, we will be 
offering a roast duck entrée . . .

-- 

   _--|\     Peter Macinnis, science gossip and word herder
  /     \    coach, Australian formation pogo-stick team
  \.--._*<-- originator of the all-terrain penguin-drawn sled
       v     http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/index.htm