ugly duck

[soup]

Out in the yard this morning. Grey day, not much going on.

typical green stuff

ho-hum



.

.

.

then

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.

.

hmm.

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.

.

what's that?

.

.

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movement.

.

.

.

here it comes.

.

.

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click.

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.

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ACK!

RUN!!!

[qanda]

1. What is that?

That thing *is* ugly.

[soup]

3. It's a 'Muscovy' or 'Barbary' duck.

Hideously ugly creatures, aren't they? We've got maybe 30 that hang out by the pond at the end of the street and wander the neighborhood. Not just ugly, they're nasty, too. The males hiss and pump themselves up to try to intimidate.

Sort of a reverse ugly duckling - the babies are cute:



Then, if they're not attacked and killed by the domineering male ducks (which happens more often than not) :(, they grow up:

[qanda]

5. Thank you for the explanation

I had a hard time trying to convince my husband that it was a real creature. My kids were absolutely fascinated. I guess you really do learn something new every day.

[insane_cratic_gal]

2. ewwwwww

that's uglier then a turkey!

[soup]

4. They've got bad tempers, too.

Ugly inside and out.

This is the one that came at me this morning:



not exactly smiling for the camera. ~shiver~

[Ms. Toad]

6. Reminds me of my chicken tending days when I was young...

I probably still have scars from when I forgot the board or wasn't swinging it in place as a shield fast enough.

Love the picture and the lead up.

[soup]

10. Was a time when "I hate chickens." came out of my mouth

on a daily basis. Thankfully, my mom's idea to keep chickens was a short-lived venture.

Your post jogged a long- and best-forgotten childhood memory of the true meaning of 'running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off'.


Thank you for your response. I was more than a little leery of posting to the group.

"Silly woman gets herself a non-disposable camera and invades the Photography forum"

I hope you all will have patience with an oh so new-bie in the process of stumbling through:

Step 1-
Become familiar with your digital camera
http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/for-newbies/advice.php

It's a whole new world, a whole new language - aperture priority, ISO, optical zoom, macro - my head spins

[JeffR]

7. Wow.

Just wow.

[soup]

11. Literally LOL here.

THEY LIVE!

[CC]

8. That is one ugly

bird, and here at first I thought you were just being cruel to those of us in cold weather. Great pics, both of them.

[soup]

12. No, no, no.

I grew up in the north. I'd never (well, ok - seldom) throw our palm tree weather in the face of anyone facing scraping the ice off of a windshield.

Tis the season to shop for a Christmas tree in shorts and flip-flops, decking the halls with light-strung plastic flamingos and 'fireplace' screen savers - just isn't quite the same.

Been away long enough (20 years!) that I think I actually miss it. But, I'm pretty sure it's missing the 'idea' of winter more than the reality.


I do enjoy it all vicariously through the gorgeous pictures you all provide - while I battle ugly ducks.

[xiamiam]

9. oh my..i looked at this yesterday and thought you had created a creature out of wax

just didnt think it was real...still finding that hard to believe...amazing...thanks...

[soup]

13. What's funny is I knew they were an ugly breed, but -

until I caught that one on camera, I didn't realize how truly and unbelievably hideous they really are.

The difference between the beautiful and graceful feathered creatures you manage to capture so well and these - um - things is enormous, isn't it?

When I first opened that pic on the computer and it was there in it's 3624x2448 'glory' I 'bout fell out of my chair. Cropping and reducing didn't make him any prettier and I can sure see why someone who'd never encountered one of them would think it wasn't real.

Everyone's responses make me glad I decided to share it. Thank you.