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Ducks Abound At Old Ranch Country Club

Golf is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic.

Duck!

Meet the Old Ranch Duck Lady!

Did you know? - Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, being the Anatidae not considered swans and geese.

Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Did you know? - The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dūce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *dūcan) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive" and ducken "to duck").

This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German Ente = "duck", Ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Proto-Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek νήσσα, νήττα (nēssa, nētta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end".

Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively.

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Did you know? - Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small molluscs.

Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly.

Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside.

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Did you know? - Despite widespread misconceptions, only the females of most dabbling ducks "quack". For example, the scaup – which are diving ducks – make a noise like "scaup" (hence their name), and even among the dabbling ducks, the males never quack. In general, ducks make a wide range of calls, ranging from whistles cooing, yodels and grunts. Calls may be loud displaying calls or quieter contact calls.

A common urban legend claims that duck quacks do not echo; however, this has been shown to be false.

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Did you know? - Worldwide, ducks have many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by mammals such as foxes, or large birds, such as hawks or eagles.

Did you know? - In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. Because an idle, floating duck or a duck squatted on land cannot react, fly or move quickly, "a sitting duck" has come to mean "an easy target".

Ducks Of Old Ranch April 2009

Did you know? - In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that of all animals, ducks attract most the humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages possibly because ducks are seen as silly in their looks or behavior. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are cartoon characters like Donald Duck, who appeared in a Walt Disney film for the first time on 9 June 1934, and Daffy Duck, who appeared in Warner Brothers films.

Uncle James Feeds The Duckies!

Flying fish
Uncle James Feeds The Duckies!

James is carefully examining the herd making sure they will not swarm and carry him off into the lakes of Old Ranch!

Old Ranch adventures
After searching his pockets, Uncle James discovers crackers for the babies...

Did you know? - Learn that ducklings should be fully feathered before allowing them to swim. Depending on the type of duck, full feathers should be in place by 9-12 weeks of age.

All new ducklings can swim but they cannot regulate their body temperature until they're older. Wild ducklings and naturally brooded ducklings have a mother to keep them warm and somewhat waterproofed (from the oils on the mother's feathers)--even so, some of these ducklings can occasionally die. Artificially brooded ducklings can have a supervised swim for short periods and then warmed under a heat lamp.

Keep in mind that ducklings are less buoyant than adults and can drown. Also, if they aren't kept warm they will easily chill. One of the most common causes of death in young domestic ducklings is from chilling.

New ducklings should be kept at a temperature of at least 85 degrees F. (and draft-free) for the first week and then the temperature can be lowered 5 degrees each week thereafter. It's also important that they're brooded in an area large enough for them to move away from the heat source if they become too hot. They aren't fully weatherproof until approx. 8 weeks of age.

Baby Ducks

Old Ranch adventures
Mommy and the babies like snacks!

Old Ranch adventures
Tummies are full... Time to swim

Old Ranch adventures
Aunt Sue and Uncle James are making sure the babies have their tummies full!