Anas americana

Paul Burnett | June 27, 2011 12:18 PM | Edit

Was that picture taken in the fall or the spring? I recall them as somewhat redder… Maybe it’s a seasonal or even a regional variation?

shebardigan | June 27, 2011 12:56 PM | Edit

Been wondering what they might look like since reading Ciardi’s poem in a previous geologic era:

A widgeon in a wicopy

In which no widgeon ought to be,

A widowed widgeon was.

While in a willow wickiup

A Wichita sat down to sup

With other Wichitas,

And what they whittled as they ate

Included what had been of late

A widgeon’s wing.

‘Twas thus

The widgeon in the wicopy,

In which no widgeon ought to be,

A widowed widgeon was.

mrg replied to a comment from shebardigan | June 27, 2011 1:21 PM | Edit

Oh, that takes me back: “This is John Ciardi, with a Word In Your Ear.” Not merely witty but had a great deep speaking voice as well.

I recall one of his broadcasts where he was wondering why canaries didn’t sing the way they used to when he was a kid. He determined that it was due to the fact that birdseed used to contain hempseed, and that the canaries of his youth were “tweeting their little stoned heads off.”

What else would you get from a poet who published in sci-fi pulp rags? Him and Asimov had infamous limerick competitions.

Just Bob | June 27, 2011 1:24 PM | Edit

HE and Asimov, please.

mrg replied to a comment from Just Bob | June 27, 2011 1:31 PM | Edit

Just Bob said:

HE and Asimov, please.

“Is there supposed to be a hyphen in ‘anal retentive’?”

Shebardigan | June 27, 2011 2:18 PM | Edit

Ciardi noted, in his “How Should A Poem Mean?” essay, that the fact that ducks don’t roost in trees needed to be accounted for in the poem. Thus “in which no widgeon ought to be”.

John Harshman | June 27, 2011 3:56 PM | Edit

Ha! shows what Ciardi knows. Wigeons don’t roost in trees, but some ducks do. Some ducks even nest in trees. So there.

mrg | June 27, 2011 4:07 PM | Edit

I don’t know if whistling ducks do … but they don’t quack. They have the proportions of duck-size geese, long necks and legs, and go “HOO HOO! HOO HOO!”

John Harshman | June 27, 2011 11:48 PM | Edit

Some species of whistling ducks perch in trees, but others don’t. They don’t quack. But neither do wigeons.

apokryltaros replied to a comment from mrg | June 28, 2011 12:13 AM | Edit

mrg said:

I don’t know if whistling ducks do … but they don’t quack. They have the proportions of duck-size geese, long necks and legs, and go “HOO HOO! HOO HOO!”

Of the genus Dendrocygna?

These ones in this video whistle very shrilly

Just Bob | June 28, 2011 10:06 AM | Edit

Around here, whistling ducks spend a lot of time on people’s roofs.

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