I didn’t take a photo of this (I was laughing too hard and it seemed a bit rude so I held off), so picture it in your mind.
Waterloo Park. Its got a ‘lake’ in it (silver lake). And the lake is inhabited by ~30 mallard ducks and between 0 and 50 Canada Geese (and many squirrels, ground hogs… you get the picture). This is not the part of the park with the llama and donkeys in the petting zoo, its more typical urban wildlife.
Its fairly common for people to feed the ducks. As a consequence the ducks are extremely tame. I have seen a person sitting at a picnic table with a duck on her lap, like a cat!
So I’m booting through the park yesterday afternoon. Its not a terrible fall day. And these two parents have their young child out. The kid is maybe 2, walking, but unsteady. And they have given the child a cup full of some sort of duck ‘crack cocaine’ which he is doling out. Eventually the ducks decide this is going too slowly and decide that a full-court-press is in order, @ which time the poor child falls down and spills the seed all over himself. At which time there is a flurry of duck action and he is *covered* in ducks. And a couple of squirrels jump into the fray. All you can see is beaks and fluffy tails and hear the anguished cries of the poor kid. His parents were unsure what to do, stand and laugh, or dive in and de-duck the situation. After a moment of indecision they choose the latter, yanking a very confused toddler from a fracas of quacking.
And that is why I looked up ‘Anatidaephobia‘. I hope the therapy is not too expensive!
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