My ducklings are growing up

June 9, 2017 • 8:45 am

They’re losing their down and growing primary feathers. There is no amount of Cheerios and oatmeal that will sate them. But I am confident they’ll all fledge now, though I’ll be sad when, on one fine day, I’ll find that they’ve flown away. But that’s what their genes want them to do.

There appear to be two males (drakes) and two females (hens): the male ducklings have fully green beaks, I’m told, and the females brownish beaks with yellow edges.

 

5 thoughts on “My ducklings are growing up

  1. This post was flagged as “sensitive material” on Twitter. I do not have an account on Twitter, so I do not have “media settings”.

    Of course your “Twitter problems” post was also flagged. 🙂

    Apparently anyone can report anything:

    “If you encounter media in Tweets that you believe should be treated as sensitive under Twitter’s media policy, please report it using the process described below.”

    Of course there is no appeal if Twitter chooses to have every one of your posts marked as “sensitive”:

    “There is currently no way to appeal a decision by the Twitter team that PERMANENTLY (my caps) changes your account setting to Mark media I Tweet as containing material that may be sensitive in response to repeated mislabeling of sensitive content.”

    What this means is YOUR failure to mark a post as sensitive material before someone reports you. The thought police are watching you.

    1. Makes sense, though–I know the adult males have bright yellow bills…but I sure haven’t been observant enough to notice subtler variance in ducklings. Cool!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *