Yeah..... but they all seem so...... small and pathetic. I mean Im not saying I would have to be some big macho killing animal or anything but imagine life as a duck.... It just doesnt seem that fascinating
Clearly, you have never been up-close-and-personal with a angry goose...or swan *shudder*.
A swan can be seven feet long, from bill to tail, with a nine foot wing span.
They can break a man's arm with their wings.
If you really need an idea how non-pathetic waterfowl are:
The Trumpeter Swan can weigh 40 pounds. It is actually the heaviest flight-capable bird on Earth.
It can fly between 40 and 60 miles-per-hour, without sleep or food, for two thousand miles in one go.
Can you honestly imagine moving that much weight, that fast, over that kind of distance?
Its wings are beyond belief, they are so strong.
It can run fast, too, if you've ever ticked one off while it was nesting. *ouch*
Geese are easily as fast and as vicious, they're just a bit smaller and better at higher altitudes.
Ducks are no pushovers, either. You don't KNOW fast until you've irritated a flock of Canvasbacks.
Seabirds have some of the sharpest bills of any bird.
Gannets can dive 100 feet under water from 200 feet in the air to go after deep-water fish, and they can swim back to the surface, swallow the fish, and regain ALL THAT ALTITUDE in a space of two minutes.
Albatrosses are HUGE, and nothing hunts them. They don't even have to flap, most of the time.
Don't knock the water birdies until you get to know them.
