This is the first year I have a pond and I am finding all of it a lot
of fun (and very relaxing). I have a small 100 Gallon pond (in a
Rubbermaid stocktank) with a 30 gallon waterfall tub/filter in an
above ground planter that I built.

I live in Baltimore city so I was very suprised to find a small duck
sitting by the pond this morning when I left for work. I would have
taken a picture but I scared him away before I could take it. He
seemed really indignant that I would disturb his morning interlude at
the pond and he made a slightly angry quack at me before flying off.

My question is will ducks eat fish (I have a few small goldfish) or
hurt plants (Lily, Clover, Umbrella Palm, and Water Lettuce)? The
duck was very cute but it is not welcome if he is here for breakfast.

Larry

Hi Larry,

You haven given me the opportunity to post the best
answer to any question ever made to rec.ponds....

But before I do that what a duck eats depends on the individual duck. There are
diving ducks and dabbling ducks. And it depends on the time of year, is the
duck a female preparing for reproduction and what food is available.
They will eat insects, worms, tiny frogs, snails, slugs, small shellfish, fish,
tadpoles, aquatic insects, grasses, and other plants. Both above and under the
water.

And now for our classic duck answer
From Ian in New Zealand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a Peking duck, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





k30a

oh, thanks, k30a. i laugh every time i read this!
mad
--
I think NASCAR would be much more exciting if, like in a
skating rink, every 15 minutes someone announced it was
time to reverse direction.

From: ESPMER (K30a)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: 12 Jun 2003 23:17:57 GMT
Subject: Ducks and ponds?

Hi Larry,

You haven given me the opportunity to post the best
answer to any question ever made to rec.ponds....

But before I do that what a duck eats depends on the individual duck. There
are
diving ducks and dabbling ducks. And it depends on the time of year, is the
duck a female preparing for reproduction and what food is available.
They will eat insects, worms, tiny frogs, snails, slugs, small shellfish,
fish,
tadpoles, aquatic insects, grasses, and other plants. Both above and under the
water.

And now for our classic duck answer
From Ian in New Zealand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a Peking duck, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





k30a



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Larry wrote:

This is the first year I have a pond and I am finding all of it a lot
of fun (and very relaxing). I have a small 100 Gallon pond (in a
Rubbermaid stocktank) with a 30 gallon waterfall tub/filter in an
above ground planter that I built.

I live in Baltimore city so I was very suprised to find a small duck
sitting by the pond this morning when I left for work. I would have
taken a picture but I scared him away before I could take it. He
seemed really indignant that I would disturb his morning interlude at
the pond and he made a slightly angry quack at me before flying off.

My question is will ducks eat fish (I have a few small goldfish) or
hurt plants (Lily, Clover, Umbrella Palm, and Water Lettuce)? The
duck was very cute but it is not welcome if he is here for breakfast.

I wouldn't worry what it eats. I'd worry about the quantity of duck poop
(no, not the Marx brothers film.)


Joe



-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----

Larry,

Can you e-mail me privately? I tried to e-mail you, but it got returned.

I wanted to ask you about your filter.

Thanks, Scott

"Larry" wrote in message
...
This is the first year I have a pond and I am finding all of it a lot
of fun (and very relaxing). I have a small 100 Gallon pond (in a
Rubbermaid stocktank) with a 30 gallon waterfall tub/filter in an
above ground planter that I built.

I live in Baltimore city so I was very suprised to find a small duck
sitting by the pond this morning when I left for work. I would have
taken a picture but I scared him away before I could take it. He
seemed really indignant that I would disturb his morning interlude at
the pond and he made a slightly angry quack at me before flying off.

My question is will ducks eat fish (I have a few small goldfish) or
hurt plants (Lily, Clover, Umbrella Palm, and Water Lettuce)? The
duck was very cute but it is not welcome if he is here for breakfast.

Larry

Larry wrote:

I live in Baltimore city so I was very suprised to find a small duck
sitting by the pond this morning when I left for work. I would have
taken a picture but I scared him away before I could take it. He
seemed really indignant that I would disturb his morning interlude at
the pond and he made a slightly angry quack at me before flying off.

My question is will ducks eat fish (I have a few small goldfish) or
hurt plants (Lily, Clover, Umbrella Palm, and Water Lettuce)? The
duck was very cute but it is not welcome if he is here for breakfast.

I've not had any problems, with a pair of mallards that have come back
each spring for the last couple of years, they come around twice a day
to feed. Apparently they live a few blocks over in the village park
lagoon.

I put out shelled corn (whole kernels) for them, which the squirrels
also eat.

K30a,
Thank you for that - I have not laughed that hard in a long time

Hopefully this was just a one time duck encounter and I will be able
to go outside bare-foot this weekend.

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 23:50:08 GMT, "Scott Teetsel"
wrote:
Scott,
You probably had trouble with the email since you have to remove the
"BYEBYESPAM" part of my address for it to work.

The filter I am using it just the 14" Little Giant waterfall box (Pro
Falls) with bio-balls in the bottom and a PolyFilter in the top.

Here is a link:
http://www.littlegiant.com/LittleGia...256A4500554258

I have put plants in the top (there is about 4" of water) and it looks
very nice. There will also be rocks around it hide it a bit and make
look at bit more natural. The falls themselves are a perfect sheet of
water and make a very pleasant sound.

Larry

Larry,
Can you e-mail me privately? I tried to e-mail you, but it got returned.
I wanted to ask you about your filter.

Thanks, Scott

RFLMAO. Thanks K30

--
_______________________________________
"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is
like an eggs-and-ham breakfast:
The chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

http://community.webshots.com/user/godwino

"K30a" wrote in message
...
Hi Larry,

You haven given me the opportunity to post the best
answer to any question ever made to rec.ponds....

But before I do that what a duck eats depends on the individual duck.
There are
diving ducks and dabbling ducks. And it depends on the time of year, is
the
duck a female preparing for reproduction and what food is available.
They will eat insects, worms, tiny frogs, snails, slugs, small shellfish,
fish,
tadpoles, aquatic insects, grasses, and other plants. Both above and under
the
water.

And now for our classic duck answer
From Ian in New Zealand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a Peking duck, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually
you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing
encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





k30a

They'll eat water celery if you have it. Some rec ponds stock water celery
as food for wildlife. I was going to stock my pond with it but had fear it'd
take over.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
This is the first year I have a pond and I am finding all of it a lot
of fun (and very relaxing). I have a small 100 Gallon pond (in a
Rubbermaid stocktank) with a 30 gallon waterfall tub/filter in an
above ground planter that I built.

I live in Baltimore city so I was very suprised to find a small duck
sitting by the pond this morning when I left for work. I would have
taken a picture but I scared him away before I could take it. He
seemed really indignant that I would disturb his morning interlude at
the pond and he made a slightly angry quack at me before flying off.

My question is will ducks eat fish (I have a few small goldfish) or
hurt plants (Lily, Clover, Umbrella Palm, and Water Lettuce)? The
duck was very cute but it is not welcome if he is here for breakfast.

Larry