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They may not have the gravitas of bald eagles or the mysterious allure of condors, but North America's ducks -- a classic harbinger every year of the changing seasons -- have done something remarkable. Scientists say the number of mallards, teals, canvasbacks and other ducks this year has reached the highest level ever recorded, with a total estimate of 48.6 million breeding ducks in Canada and the United States. The number is 7 percent higher than last year, according to a survey released this week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 43 percent higher than the historic average...

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign broke with congressional Republicans on Monday by arguing that the individual mandate upheld by the Supreme Court last week is a penalty, not a tax. http://thehill.com/video/campaign/235855-romney-team-agrees-with-obama-mandate-not-a-tax Duck duck who's got the Duck ?

If you want to see some animal and familial abuse done tastily by a bunch of hill folks who got rich making duck calls.. but they like to fish&frog tooo.. A&E now .. Quack.

Hooded Mergansers for the most part. I used to see a greater variety when I was hunting, I can't get far enough off the road these days.

I got out for a while yesterday, a nice sunny day. I was riding with a friend who just isn't in to lurking around mud holes so I really couldn't get serious.I got these pretty little Hooded Mergansers moving down a pond.

I got out just ahead of an oncoming storm today, the Mallards are back The hens were flaked out on the slope around the pond, out of reach, but several drakes were parading along the edge.Most of the local ponds are still low, this one catches runoff from a large parking lot.I saw a lot of Wood Storks today, but none I could get close to.

The start of waterfowl hunting season on public lands in the Sacramento Valley has been delayed by a week due to lingering effects of a wet winter.

An American hunter who abused wounded birds in Western Canada and videotaped his antics is facing a $15,000 fine and a three-year hunting ban in Canada. Jeffery Burdett Foiles, 54, of Pleasant Hill, Illinois, pleaded guilty in an Edmonton court Wednesday to causing unnecessary pain and suffering to a duck, contrary to the Criminal Code.

Sales of new homes in the U.S. saw a modest decrease in the month of June, according to figures released Tuesday by the Commerce Department, with the drop in sales coming as a surprise to economists. New single-family home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 312,000 in June, a 1 percent drop from revised figures that showed the May rate at 315,000. Most economists had predicted a slight rebound to an annual rate of 321,000 new home sales. Additionally, the May figures were revised downward from initial reports that showed an annual rate of 319,000.

It was an unlikely place to find a pair of mallard ducks waddling around on a Friday morning. But there they were, in the employee parking lot behind the downtown Coeur d'Alene Press building on the corner of Second and Lakeside. Press workers quickly noticed something wasn't right with the colorful male bird. Protruding from the side of the animal's neck, the employees observed what appeared to be a long needle with a plastic cap on the end. "We immediately thought it must be some sort of tracking device," said Press business office employee Angie Abbott. While another Press staffer...

Disability insurer Aflac Inc fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of its iconic duck on Monday after a series of Twitter jokes about the earthquake in Japan, the company's most important market. Since 2000, Gottfried has voiced the duck in the insurer's TV ad campaign in the United States, quacking "Af-LAC!" in the comedian's famously abrasive voice. Gottfried fired off a dozen jokes on the social media service over the weekend, all riffing in one way or another on the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami. But the company said his comments "were lacking in humor and certainly do not...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Wal-Mart (WMT.N), the world's largest retailer, has apologized for selling duck meat past its expiry date in a store in southwest China's Chongqing region, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday. A store in the Jiulongpo district was caught by a local market regulator selling smoked tea ducks using the meat. The market regulator was tipped off by a consumer late in February, Xinhua said. Wal-Mart would pay the victims 10 times the price of the ducks as a penalty, the firm told the municipal consumers' association in a statement.

Here's a delightful way to treat your special guy or gal on Valentine's Day, and it's much easier to prepare than you'd suspect. Serve with baked potato and Brussels sprouts. A Black Forest cake would truly be a satisfying and romantic dessert.

SUFFOLK Charles Duck opened the door of his White Marsh Road home on Wednesday, supporting himself with crutches. A week ago today, he'd just come home from the hospital. Shortly before 3 a.m., police said, Duck saw a man trying to load a dog box from Duck's lawn into a pickup. Duck got his gun, went to the window, and yelled at the man to move to the front of his vehicle. Instead, he jumped into the passenger side of his pickup, and Duck, a retired Suffolk police officer, started shooting, police said. "I just got out of surgery the...

As attention turns to the 112th Congress -- and the 2012 cycle -- the political ramifications of the sprint to close the 111th Congress are becoming clear. Several members of the 111th Congress may find themselves in competitive Senate races in 2012 and an analysis of their voting decisions during the lame duck session offers a few clues about what is in store for some of 2012's marquee contests. The debate over Pres. Obama's compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, a central focus of the session, shed some light on the 2012 Nevada Senate race. Sen. John...

Today, 12/22/2010, finally ended the orgy of political abuse by the Gang of Lame Ducks, led by Nazi Bela Lugosi (aka Nancy Pelosi) and Dirty Harry “Squeaky” Reid, known officially as the end of the 111th Congress. (My personal suggestion is to replace the 1′s with 6′s for a more appropriate appellation.) After the “shellacking” that Obama and the Demonrats took on 11/04/2010, the filthy pack of third-world politicos used scorched earth politics to ram the remainder of their agenda down the throats of the dismayed – but at this point – not-altogether-surprised American public The weeks from 11/04 to...

... to Pilfer and Sabotage Operative word for conservatives: VIGILANCE The so-called progressives aren't done with their date-rape of this country just yet... As legislators return to the Hill today, don't let the reported "slow start" to the congressional lame duck session lull you into complacency... rather expect the worst and keep your guard up for a sharp left-hook at anytime over the coming weeks. From it's deathbed, the fading Obama-Reid-Pelosi triumvirate is apt to ram-through anything they can get the votes for: it's not like they'll be restrained by any scruples- and you already know what they think of...

Dem lame-duck agenda shrinking fast after Election Day 'shellacking'By Alexander Bolton - 11/08/10 05:00 AM ET Democratic allies are not optimistic about their legislative priorities getting done in the lame-duck session after Democratic candidates got pummeled on Election Day. Senate Democrats had discussed as many as 20 bills up for consideration during the lame-duck session, the period between the Nov. 2 election and Christmas. In the wake of a midterm election that President Obama called a “shellacking” of his party, Democratic insiders question if anything more than a stopgap spending measure and temporary extension of Bush-era tax cuts can pass....

One of the top priorities of the coming lame duck session of Congress will be the formal repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," aka U.S. Code Title 10, Section 654. Obama won't have another chance to shove it through before 2012, and he wants the gay community on his side then. He will probably also want to repeal Article 125 - Sodomy in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  Read at least the "Findings" part of Section 654 before you go any further. It contains a good summary of the logic that was used at the time that "Don't...

Kirk to miss part of lame-duck sessionUpdated at 11:36 AM today November 6, 2010 (SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) -- Illinois Republican Mark Kirk won't be seated in the U.S. Senate in time for the start of the lame duck session of Congress this month -- unlike two other newly elected senators. The session begins Nov. 15. But state officials say the paperwork officially declaring Kirk the winner of the Senate race won't be delivered until Nov. 29. That should still allow Kirk to participate in two weeks of the session in December. He argued strongly during the campaign that voters needed to...