My fickle duck

August 22, 2017 • 11:15 am

Honey has disappeared again, and who knows if it’s the last time I saw her. She was there much of the day yesterday, but came when I called only once out of three visits. She preferred to stand on the “duck island”, fitting herself in between the red sliders sunning themselves.

Perhaps the eclipse discombobulated her. I’m not ready to say she’s gone, so stay tuned.

23 thoughts on “My fickle duck”

  1. Photo title: Honey Duck & the Sliders prepare to sing a medley of their Greatest Hits…

      1. The camera can make all the difference. I love how the contrast of bold and calming greens highlights Honey’s orange and gold.

    1. Sadly, the Oxford English Dictionary says the word is a corruption of “jouk” or “jook”, a “Scottish word of unknown origin”:

      3. trans. To evade, elude, ‘dodge’, by ducking, bending, or springing aside.

      1812 W. Ranken Poems 36 Fain wad he the bargain jeuket, But his honour was at stake.

      1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xviii. 165 Ye micht possibly hae juiked (dodged) the blunderbush.

      1901 N.E.D. at Jouk Mod. Sc. Every sodger at first tries to jouk the bullets.

      1. But the online etymology dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/index.php traces it to Old English:

        “duck (n.1) waterfowl, Old English duce (found only in genitive ducan) “a duck,” literally “a ducker,” presumed to be from Old English *ducan “to duck, dive” (see duck (v.)). Replaced Old English ened as the name for the bird, this being from PIE *aneti-, the root of the “duck” noun in most Indo-European languages.” Buck’s Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages concurs.

        1. Eend in Dutch, Ant in Danish, Ente in German, Anatra in Italian, Anatis in Latin. But there are some different ones in Indo-european languages besides the ‘Duck’. Canard in French, Pato in Spanish and Portugese, Patka in some Slavic languages and Papia in Greek. In north and east Slavic areas it is Kacha or variations thereof.
          (In Xhosa and Zulu it is iDada or amaDada, and Pidipidi in seTswana).
          So the ‘duck’, like ‘canard’ appears to be unique in Indo-European languages. But maybe a linguist would think otherwise.

      2. My observation of the wild ducks visiting my garden is that they’ll duck down in the long grass and vegetation to hide from me. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the assignation.

    1. Wow, that’s spectacular! I love the combination of instruments they used here, such luxury to have so many colours.
      In light of the photo above, it was impossible not to think of the three male singers as turtles. Thanks for the link 🙂

  7. Though Honey may or may not have departed for good, thoughPCC(E) is by no means “ancient,” and though John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester’s poem “Song of A Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover” is quite ribald, Honey’s fickleness (torn between environment — food and genetics — migration) brought the first stanza of that poem to mind, with a slight correction.

    Ancient person, for whom I
    All the quacking drakes defy,
    Long be it ere thou grow old,
    Aching, shaking, crazy, cold;
    But still continue as thou art,
    Ancient person of my heart.

    Then there is “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaE6toi4mk

    And whether she stays or goes, one knows that PCC(E) will remain “Ancient person of [her] heart.” How could she ever forget those repasts!

  8. Even if she leaves, perhaps she will return next year. I had a pair of Canada geese nest in the pond by my house every year for 15 years. During the latter part of that time, the gander came when I called and ate from my hand. Each year, the pair would bring their goslings to meet me (and to eat the birdseed I provided).

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