Flying dead Duck

[Rio56]

really...
About a week ago it's -22 or so and a north wind 40-50 klm .. I'm driving north on Q2 at Red Deer and just crossed the river when I see a duck , a teal I think , flying about 10 ft off the ground in front and to the side of me over the ditch ... it suddenly quit flying and did a belly flop into the snow , bounced once a bit and that was it .. I could see that its wings were still stretched out , head down and its over ...
Never seen or heard of this before .. what was it .. coming off the river with open water and just freezing in mid air , wings or lungs ? it was as dead as a duck can be....

[bessiedog]

Yup...
I've seen it a few times. Too damn cold, not enough food as well I guess, they just peter out.
My dad had to collect a few mallards in November one year from the schoolyard... they just kinda crash landed.

It's something eh?

[Stally77]

Maybe climate change is the cause!

Lmfao!

[catnthehat]

I happens, they get iced up and down they come, I have seen it happen and heard of flocks coming down when I was a kid, and a elder i Ft. Chip told me he saw a big flock of Canadas come down once up north. - sometimes in a ditch, other times in a school yard, but the only time we hear about it in the news is when a big flock of them land n a tailings pond!:thinking-006:
Cat

[IR_mike]

Just seen a large flock of geese (200+) fly over Bonnyville.

Thermometer says -24c.

[Rio56]

Maybe climate change is the cause!

Lmfao!

rotflmfao .. maybe show us a fish you caught ? :sHa_shakeshout:

[Ranger CS]

really...
About a week ago it's -22 or so and a north wind 40-50 klm .. I'm driving north on Q2 at Red Deer and just crossed the river when I see a duck , a teal I think , flying about 10 ft off the ground in front and to the side of me over the ditch ... it suddenly quit flying and did a belly flop into the snow , bounced once a bit and that was it .. I could see that its wings were still stretched out , head down and its over ...
Never seen or heard of this before .. what was it .. coming off the river with open water and just freezing in mid air , wings or lungs ? it was as dead as a duck can be....

Had it happen, carb ice, engine failure down you come. LOL

[Rio56]

Had it happen, carb ice, engine failure down you come. LOL

so a duck can freeze up ?

[RandyBoBandy]

so a duck can freeze up ?

Nothing like a lil crude oil to lube the wings :sHa_sarcasticlol:

[catnthehat]

Just seen a large flock of geese (200+) fly over Bonnyville.

Thermometer says -24c.

The instances a familiar with were in ice storm conditions.
Cat

[tikkahunter73]

Ive never heard of such a story, but have no doubt its a true story

[Rio56]

Ive never heard of such a story, but have no doubt its a true story

I know .. unless you've seen it .. hard to believe ... but that's what happened ... I don't know how fast ducks fly but it was right there and then poof ... gone into a belly flop ....

[Bub]

I have seen it happening to a pigeon and twice to a crow, one falling 3 yards in front of me. Never seen it happening to waterfowl or any other birds for that matter.

[KegRiver]

Twice I've seen Geese do that and both times in warm weather.
I know what happened to the one, because I had shot it several minutes before but it showed no effect. It flew in a big circle, perhaps five or six miles and then just conked out in mid air.

I suspect that is what happened to the second goose I saw drop out of the sky and it could well be what happened to your Duck.

I don't doubt they can ice up and drop out of the sky but I can't imagine how that would kill them, unless the impact of hitting the ground did, and that wouldn't be the case if it dropped from ten feet into snow.
I'm guessing of course as I have never seen or heard of it before and I have seen them flying in some serious cold temps, like -30 and lower.

[wwbirds]

Back in the day before sunday hunting we used to take the dogs out on Sunday morning for some of the local sloughs for a walk and often picked up 5-6 dead or dying ducks. We knew they had not been shot that day as no sunday hunting was allowed so they were birds that had been hit but not mortally so managed to fly a day a week or a month before crashing. I think the introduction of steel shot has contributed to this as shots over 40 yards often do not have the necessary velocity to reach the vitals but can penetrate skin fat and muscle so the wound can take weeks or months to kill. Take shots within 35 yards and usually they fall dead after 40 yards we dont really know.

[gman1978]

Seen it happen a few times. Worst was -34 morning with ice fog. They had been hitting the silage pit and they would just fall out of the sky.