Funny Duck Pictures and Ducklings

• Poor Ducklings
• Helpful Duck Sign
• Yellow Duck Race
• Black Ducks Win
• Ducklings Play 'Chicken'
• I'm late, I'm late
• Funny Duck Picture - The Pickpocket
• Dog and Duck - Imprinting
• Interesting Facts About Ducks

Poor Mallard Ducklings

Here is one of the saddest pictures on the entire site. I wonder what the mother duck could have done differently? Guy was so upset about the lost ducklings, that I created a happy ending on this page.

A Helpful Duck Sign

Yellow Duck Race Picture

Duck Race

Perhaps as a child you dropped sticks into a river?  In those idyllic childhood days it always seemed we had a friend who also dropped their stick and thus we had stick races.  Later fathers and especially uncles, took over the game and instead of sticks they introduced posh ducks.  Most likely this desire for bigger and better ducks was fuelled by competition between brothers who had now grown up and used their children to continue their rivalry.

Duck Race Update - 2010

An incredible 250,000 plastic ducks took to the water in 'The Great British Duck Race' 2008.  The event was held on the river Thames at Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court Palace, (London).  The stretch of river was cunningly selected so that it took about 2½ hours to drift down the one-kilometre course.  Unfortunately, the 2010 race has been postponed. As usual, each duck was sponsored for a charity, and the winning owner received £10,000.  The prize fund generously stretched to include the next 29 ducks to finish.  It costs £2 to adopt a duck, and the event could raise as much as £200,000 for charity.  As far and Will and Guy know, 'The Great British Duck Race', is the largest charity duck race in the world.  However, we have not had reports from all the 18 other countries who hold similar sponsored duck races. We have to say that a plastic duck race is a fun way to involve a community in fund raising.  Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of our funny duck pictures.

Urban Myth - A 'Ringer' Plastic Duck

It was reported from an unsubstantiated source that the plastic race in a certain big city in America had to be abandoned when someone tried to substitute a 'ringer', a plastic duck with a tiny outboard motor. While a miniature motor in a duck is far-fetched idea, we once heard of a plastic duck filled with baking powder and a tiny hole at the rear. The idea was that the baking powder would react with the water to produce carbon dioxide, which would propel the 'ringer' faster than the rest. The problem was that when filled with backing powder, the duck was much lower in the water the rest and soon drew attention.  The other problem was that there was no way of controlling the direction the duck was propelled - unless you installed a radio controlled rudder!

Duck Racing from Canada

'Richard's Racers' at the Agricultural Fair and Expo in Abbotsford, BC, Canada

More Duckling Pictures

Ducks Play 'Chicken'

Black Ducklings Win

Now we know what happened to the other yellow ducklings.  They lost in the game of 'Chicken'!

 Following the leader...................come on fellers

I'm Late, I'm Late

Funny Duck Picture - The Pickpocket

See more funny duck pictures.

Dog and Duck Imprinting

I have seen ducks follow farmers Wellington boots, but I have never before seen a picture of duckling following a dog.  I cannot help thinking that this picture would be a good sign for a pub called the Dog and Duck. Just in case you think it's the man the ducklings are following.  Wrong - it's dog that the ducklings have imprinted on, see our dog and cute ducks picture below. Here is another example of duck imprinting

Little Chicks Need a Holiday Too!   [Kindly Sent by Junie]

Now the children in this area are on holiday for a few weeks from school, there are 3 little chicks who need to be taken care of by someone, who is coming later on to pick them up from here. My husband, who is the school caretaker, brought them home in a plastic box. They are not very old. There is a light bulb to keep them warm. They look at me. They listen to me typing. I don't know how intelligent they are, cos all they do is either walk about pecking at the wood shavings or looking up at me.... They probably know I'm typing jokes. Cos that's what I'm doing. But they probably realise - its just cheep humour!

Cat with Ducklings

Will and Guy cannot decide what's happening with this picture of ducklings with a cat / kitten.  Have the duck's imprinted on the cat / kitten?  Or is the cat about to pounce?

Singing and Dancing Duck

A duck, named Bengbeng, [apparently translates as 'Silly'] has become a celebrity for its singing, dancing and counting abilities according to the Dahe Daily. Its owner, Du Xinai of Xingxiang city, China, takes the duck with him when he goes to the local agricultural market to buy vegetables each day. This funny duck can be seen wearing a small red scarf and a pair of tiny shoes. (See duck picture to the right.) 'If you ask him to sing, he quacks rhythmically while shaking his head and body. He quite enjoys it. If you put up one finger, he quacks once, then twice with two fingers, and so on.' Du says Bengbeng is also a good citizen, and always waits for the traffic lights.  Bengbeng has become quite a star.  Everywhere he goes, people welcome him like a super star.'

Duck or Courgette?

Actually this is a courgette which was grown on an allotment in Halstead, Essex, England, by Patricia Bragg.  But this hilarious courgette really does look like a picture of a duck.  Rather than using it in making the lasagne she had planned, Patricia is hoping to auction it.

Only in America - Duck Gets 'Order of Protection'

A pet duck named Circles, who was shot and wounded with a pellet gun, has received an order of protection.  New York introduced the protection law to deal with domestic violence.   This was the first time that an animal has benefited from such an order. What happened was that the duck Circles was in its owner's backyard when a neighbour shot it through the neck. The duck was successfully treated by a vet. Meanwhile, the neighbour was charged with animal cruelty, and at the arraignment and Circles got an order of protection.

Interesting Facts About Ducks

• One amusing ritual for introducing friends to an Indian restaurant, is to persuade the greenhorn to order a Bombay duck, and then watch their incredulity when the waiter brings a dried fish.  The Bombay duck really is a fish, or to be completely accurate, a lizardfish, which does indeed live in the waters off Bombay.
• Seven Peking ducks were imported into the USA in from China in 1873. Little did these entrepreneurs realise that these ducks would turn into a $30 million industry farming and cooking their Peking ducks ancestors.Incidentally, attempts to rename Peking duck to Beijing duck have been a spectacular failure.
• 'Dabbling ducks' is a general name for a classic duck.  The duck you see in children's books, the mallard duck that you see at top of this page and the Peking duck in the previous snippet.
• The male duck is the drake, while the female duck is the hen; their eggs hatch into ducklings.  Will and Guy's favourite collective name for a group of flying ducks, is a 'team of ducks'. When they are on the water we call them a 'paddling of ducks. However, everyone else seems to refer to them a 'flock of ducks', whether they are flying, swimming, or on land.
• In cricket, a batsman who is out without scoring is said to be out for a duck.   One 'wag' back in 1859 spotted that a 0 on a scoreboard looked like a duck's egg.
• 'Lame duck' was originally an 18th century term for investors in the stock market who could not, or would not, pay their brokers.  Later in 1926 a Wisconsin newspaper, wrote the heading:  'Making a lame duck of Coolidge'.  Calvin Coolidge would be the first of many American presidents to be saddled with the epithet - Lame duck president.
• Here is an unusual word to throw into your conversation - anatine, it means duck-like.

Duck Myths Busted A duck's quack doesn't echo, is an enduring urban myth.  However, this myth was busted by the University of Salford, Manchester, England.  When you think about it, how hard is it to put a duck in a sound studio and turn on the recorder. Result - the duck's quack echoes. 'Donald Duck was banned in Finland - for wearing no pants'.   This shows the power of hype, and the way in which mundane facts are exaggerated, take out of context, and distorted.  What happened back in 1977 was that Youth Board in Helsinki decided not to subscribe to the Donald Duck comic. As on off-the-cuff remark one of the committee members commented that Donald Duck did not wear pants.  The rest as they say is history - or in this case internet mythology.

Rare Ducks in Madagascar

Eighteen Madagascan pochards - the world's most endangered duck - have hatched in a captive breeding centre. This brings the world population of the ducks to just 60. Scientists are studying the remaining wild population closely, in order to understand the reasons behind the species' decline and to determine the right conditions for releasing birds back into their natural habitat. See more on the Madagascan Duck story  Footnote: Please send us any funny duck pictures that you may have.