Thing 120 Feed a Bird From My Hand

I'm getting terrible bad for my photos... I know. There should be more of them, and I should have more detailed evidence of the Things. I promise I'll be good from now on, but today, I'm without my own laptop, and so photos are a no-no.

Myself and Pixie Head went to visit Bolag in Woodford in County Galway. It's away over to the east of the county. Yes, there's an eastern part to County Galway. Who'd have thunk it? And there's a tiny wee little part of Woodford River, which is a tributary of the River Shannon - there's a geography lesson in here folks, so pay attention, which runs through the town. It has ducks. Better than that, it has Gang Ducks. This is not a technical term for a type of duck, I mean that the ducks have formed two posses, and stare malevolenty at each other from either side of the water. At any minute someone's going to pull out a glock and Duck Warfare will break out.

I hope Spoon is reading this. When you're done making awesome WiiKick games in Scotland, Duck Warfare is next on your to-do list.

When me and Thorny Wire were small(er) our Grandparents used to take us to feed ducks and swans in the Shannon by Clancy Strand. It was a treat. It was also where I first heard that swans can break a person's arm. Since then every time I see a swan, I think judo/karate bird. Spoon, there's another game you can work on. Karate Swan versus Gang Duck. But I digress...

I loved it. And totally forgot about it, until we put bird feeding on The List.

So back to Gang Ducks. Throwing bits of bread into the water and all ducks converge on me, happy out, feeding, swimming, doing that thing where they sticks their asses up in the air, and the faces under the waterline. Peace reigns.

Closer and closer they get, until one of them decides; the hell with this being nice business, I'm not waiting around, I'm a gang duck. Snap. Striaght out of my hand and into his gob. Then he remembered he's a duck, and promptly legged it. And that was that. None of the rest of the ducks would come closer than a foot. It felt like I was eighteen and in a pub again. No birds within a foot.

Still it was cool. Ducks are under-appreciated. I guess it's because there's been no Disney movie for them. But don't worry. After Duck Gang Wars, Spoon will make them famous...