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Posted on 03/25/2016 2:55:33 PM PDT by V K Lee
Centennial Park in Irving is home to many birds, but none like the duck known as "Manny."
A few weeks ago, the Mandarin duck showed up in Irving. Nature photographer Kent Jarrett said people named him Manny.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcdfw.com ...
He’s pretty smart to have Canadian Geese as body guards. LOL. Pretty bird, just like the Wood Duck! Hope he finds a girl.
We’ve ducks just north of Dallas - but nothing like the Mallard. All they seem to do is eat the fish in the pond. Several geese sanctuary’s in the area as well. It’s nice out on the plains of Texas. We even have deer wander up to the deck. They’ve not been seen in some time now but we’ve seen as may as 6 at once. Now is the Painted Bunting and Hummingbird season. :-)) always a treat. Spring has sprung!!
Aren’t they normally in Chinese restaurants?
Delicious!!
Yes, so it’s heard :-)) We’ve few of those this way, however. Around here it’s BBQ, steak, and TexMex (generally)
Chinese food on Christmas day (A Christmas Story)w/the head? :-/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTq20prt0K8
Texted my birder son in Coppell. He’s already gotten pics. Says duck is gorgeous.
Mandarin duck, pass the Hoisin sauce.
I would give my left arm to see a Painted Bunting or a Cardinal, but.. We have Amazon Parrots (red forehead)!!!! Tons of Hummingbirds, Mallards, American Goldfinches, Black Phoebes, Juncos, Red-Shouldered Hawks, Great Horned Owls, etc..
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Never seen the Great Horned. We do have a distant cousin living in our barn or nearby. :-)) One night he was heard while sitting outside watching the stars. He swooped down and might near scared me to death!! Old barn owls are in abundance in this area.
The first time the Painted Bunting was ever seen I was speechless (believe it or not (:-)) It was sitting in our drive not for from me. I had never seen a bird like that with all the different colors. At least never here. Beautiful. Back then there was no web and all the information had to be searched thru bird identification books. Then at last found WHAT it was and its behavior patterns. We now know to look for them and to tempt them to visit. The cardinals are aplenty. We had one local who repeatedly fought with himself. On our deck was a mirrored object in which he would see himself and he’d bang against that object until the noise was such it would wake you in the morning. He’d hit it and then step back look again and at times even went behind it to see where the reflection had gone. Once he became an instant warrior, he would then sit on the car door, see his reflection and pondered what it might be pecking an pooping. Naturally, had to leave the car windows up :-))
When at last, I’d had enough and pulled out an old sock, placed it snugly over the mirror his antics soon ended. Every evening arriving home from work, the sock would again be put on the mirror, taking it off when I left in the morning. 1 bird sock in a paper bag, in the glove compartment.
For several days we saw a Blue Heron fly over the house on his way to our pond/tank/lake. He was huge. He’d fly and stand in the water eating his fill. One day he landed closer to the house and we watched as he hunted down a field mouse and actually ate him. Never realized they even ate mice.
Never a dull moment on the ol’ prairie :-)) The joys of nature....and the possibility of snakes, poisonous centipedes. (with so many legs you’d think they would trip over their feet, but they are like Speedy Gonzales and move very fast) Have a photo of one found which was 5-7 inches long, according the the ruler laid aside it. Of course the creature was dead. Never had seen one of those things either and later heard if it should touch your skin with its feet you would experience a reaction like a severe burn. And of course, the scorpions. both small and large...not quite as large as The Black Scorpion seen years ago, but large enough you don’t want to stay around it.
And back to birds- not far from us is an area that is highly populated with bluebirds at certain times of the year. Another bird never seen before and will be so enjoyed when/if seen again. The most perfect blue shade. Life is seldom dull here :-))
I used to raise Call Ducks which are basically domesticated living “Decoys”
I had 1 that went Feral, Flew quite well, came back 3 years in a row, stuck around for a couple months each time and then poof, gone again.
The Mandarin may have come from someones semi-domesticated collection ... it didn’t fly here from China.
I have attempted to “save ?/ rescue” basically brought home ducklings that have washed out to Sea after a Storm ... never had any survivors, even when raised with ducklings of similar size .. might have helped if I knew what kind of ducklings they were so I could fed them properly. (Not an Expert, just like Ducks, Duck Eggs and they are so cool, seem to have more personality than Chickens)
I wonder if the duck hitched a ride on container ship?
Growing up the family lived in the country just outside Dallas. Great Grandmother livid on a farm north of Dallas. We’d visit and as children would go to her pond always just to watch their ducks. One year we kids decided to have our own ducks and GGM gave us permission to take two home with us. Why, Lord only knows. We had no pond/tank/lake. All we had was an inflatable kiddie pool. But we took two ducks and named them Pinky and Blackie they lived as part of the family and we played with them like one would a dog. Then we moved to the city. The two going with us. The year santa left us bicycles, with baskets was the year I attempted to put one in the basket and give a tour of the neighbor. Poor thing. Naturally, it was frightened and attempted to jump out of the enclosure, and cut his head on the spokes. Immediately rode home crying crocodile tears and showed him to Mom. Mom could fix anything ;-O She cleaned the cut, took needle and thread and begin to sew the cut. Duck survived, and we kept him for a few more years. Eventually, being children we tired of the responsibility and eventually took the two back to the farm. As they were released we hung around to see how they and the ‘regulars’ would react. They seemed to mingle well and the end of the day we bid adieu to our playtime buddies. For about a year when we’d visit GGM we’d look for Pinkie and Blackie -they remembered us just as we remembered them and their appearance/temperament. Then, one day the ducks were no longer there. Sad day indeed. Lots of memories with those two.
‘seem to have more personality than Chickens”
Agreed! We raised chickens when a child there in the country. Remember going to the Grain and feed store in Oak Cliff and dad buying little chicks, bringing them home Must have been about 5 years old..before beginning school. I be out there chasing the chickens. Fun until the day that dad decided he’d like fried chicken for dinner. He took that bird and do what men-folk do to a chicken before eating it. It was years before I could eat chicken again. Not even Youngbloods fried chicken for this tyke.
There are a number of persons who prefer duck eggs over chicken eggs. Don’t believe a duck egg has ever been eaten and only in the past year or so have there been many chicken eggs eaten. Now use them often for omelets (cheese) just about every morning. Or soft scrambled. Tastes change as one grows older I guess.
Anything could happen. Perhaps or maybe had a nest in the wheels of a plane?
He was more than likely someone’s pet but if so, where and how did ‘someone’ acquire him?
Does it come with egg roll?
We get Large and small Egrets, Herons and GREAT HERONS on occasion: They eat small or large fish, gophers, rats, ducklings etc.,
What started me down the whole Duck thing was I was mowing the Lawn and I kept hearing the weird sound, I’d stop and it would stop, I’d start pushing the mower again and it would start again, bugged me so I shut the mower off and started pushing it to the sidewalk then I could hear the peep peep peep... I was a Duckling following me and how I didn’t step on it while I was mowing is it’s own mystery.
I gathered it up, put it in a box, got a lamp and a bowl for water ... next thing ya know it is full grown, kids named it Stone Cold (after the Wrestler) cause it was Fearless, it thought it was a Dog, wanted to Wrestle, Fight and Tug a War with anything... nibble the kids toes while they were running about everything but fetch but it would come when called.
That is when I screwed up, I decided he needed a Girlfriend so I went to a neighbors, we caught a hen and I unveiled her and set her free in the yard, ducks herd but Stone Cold thought he was a Dog so he thought this Hen was chasing him and he ran and ran till he was winded and just ran between my legs and stopped because the Hen was basically a from a Pond and afraid of people, she wouldn’t come near me so ol Stone Cold was Safe, for the rest of the afternoon he was underfoot and eyeballing that new duck that always stayed about 10 ft away ... finally I just went in the house.
Next day Stone Cold was Gone... there was a Duck that looked just like him but it wasn’t him, it was like the hen had did a Vulcan Mind Meld on him, he wouldn’t come close and feeding them they wouldn’t come to the feed until you backed off, he became a Duck and a scaredycat duck at that.
Kids were Mad at me... But the Pair was Prolific, had lots of ducks after that and then I started buying all different kinds, the Call Ducks were pretty, the Runners were unique etc
If it weren’t so late I’d tell you about my Hen that Crowed almost like a Rooster.
Time got away, closer to Breakfast than Supper but I haven’t eaten Supper yet. Gnight.
LOL it is supposed stranger things can happen. You talk of mowing and the lucky duck’s fate. We had a passel of rabbits at one time. Actually they might have belonged to the folks across the road and they up and moved here. We sould see these guys come out at dusk to see what they could find to eat. While the land in front was being tilled one season, the driver accidentally hit a rabbit nest. Killed the mother and we felt the necessity to take in and attempt to nurse 1 baby bunny. Unfortunately that didn’t work out too well. Our dog (just being a dog) did what dogs are want to do so there went one little bunny off to heaven. There might have been more than the one found but that is something I’d rather not know.
Then there was the boxer turtle. He was found, the guy had only one good eye. Believe it might have been hit on the road at some time. We’d water and feed him keeping him outside in a small (to him large) area. One day we found he had vanished. Happened to be the day the field had been tilled and as he was never seen again believe the tractor might have been his demise.
When we had the tank/pond/lake dug and at last had water in the basin, we went to the county Trade days and purchased a school of catfish. Don’t remember how many were purchased but a good number of them. The fingerlings brought home and released into the water. Sometime later we were again at Trade Days and found ducks - purchased roughly 10 and brought them home. Dah! First or second night here one went missing. All that was found were feathers. Then it continued night after night until they were gone. More than likely a coyote felt he had been invited for dinner. We have seen them out back crossing our field, always looking behind them. One day we even saw a bobcat walking across. Thank goodness our dog was in the house at that time.
And then the evening of the primal scream. Sitting at the computer and feel something on the tops of my bare feet. Turn my ankle and shake my foot after bringing it out from under my desk and off flew a little garden snake. Scream and scream again. Jamie Lee Curtis has competition she knows nothing about :-))
Adventures of Stony brook farm. Another day in the country.
Next visit shall require you to tell the tale of the hen that rowed. And I’ll relate to you our dog who talked. ‘Hello’
Good morning, good night. These past few days it’s been a challenge to judge just what time it might be.
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