I’ve had a few opportunities to photograph ducks in the park from different trips there. I found these two floating on a raft together to be rather endearing. (It’s hard to tell, but I think the raft may actually be a platform that is anchored there underwater.) I keep noticing mallards together in male/female pairs, and it makes me think of Bambi and all of the animals getting “twitterpated” in springtime.
I thought I would combine photos with a couple of fun duck poems (not my own this time) of which I was reminded recently.
The Duck
Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it sups,
It bottoms ups.
— by Ogden Nash
Photo by Susan Joy Clark
I don’t have any “bottoms up” photos, but here is another duck poem with a similar theme, this time by Kenneth Grahame.
Ducks’ Ditty
All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!
Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight,
Busy in the river!
Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim —
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.
Everyone for what he likes!
We like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!
High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call —
We are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!
— by Kenneth Grahame
So, I don’t have any “bottoms up” photos of ducks, but I do have this photo of some baby ducklings.
