A Couple of Odd Ducks

The hybridized male Mallard / Black Duck

The happy multi-ethnic couple.

This couple of ducks spent the better portion of the afternoon napping and resting on the big log that's stranded along one stretch of our river. I haven't been able to make a positive I.D., but I think that the female is an American Black Duck and the male is a cross between a black duck and a mallard. From what my birding guide says, there's a possibility of hanky-panky between black ducks and mallards, and the resulting offspring have coloring that borrows from both parents. In any case, they were a pretty pair and I was glad to get a chance to snap some pictures. For some reason seeing these two visitors got me to thinking about all of the slang expressions that employ the word duck, and there are quite a few. He's a dead duck; like a sitting duck; like water off a duck's back; she's a lame duck; like duck soup: ducky (british for darling); and so on and so forth. I'm not sure what it is about ducks that inspires such linguistic gymnastics and tangential references. Is it their endearing waddle? The heart-rending "Quack!"? That odd beak? I really couldn't say. What I do know however is that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. . . well, then chances are it's a duck.