duckies

Right now i'm obsessed with ducks..
Dandan and i went to the riverside yesterday, and hung out with a gaggle of duckies all crazed by being fed by friendly visitors.
People would turn up every 30mins with a half bagful of bread (and expensive bread like wondersoft at $3.50 a bag, fresh and fluffy... that makes the frugal side of me twitch. even i only buy home brand for my own family..), and the ducks would flock around and peck at their hands and pockets, and literally tear the bread out of their hands. It was great fun to watch, and dandan had such a blast..
But. this one guy was telling me how they come every week now to do this, as now that it's winter the ducks are literally starving. "See how it's grabbing it out of your hands? it's desperate, starving. that's biology".
I made suitably alarmed and sympathetic sounds, but couldn't help wonder if it was actually doing the ducks any real favours. He did end off by saying "the problem is that as the ducks get used to being fed by humans, they don't try as hard to find food like weeds at the bottom of the pond....".
I looked it up when i got home (Google is your friend), and it's true - feeding wild ducks is strongly not recommended, it makes them a) less independent and less able to find their own food; b) fatty in the organs (eg foie gras) and very prone to early deaths, in epidemic proportions; c) overbreed and form an unstable unsustainable population. etc etc.
An American site even offered pdfs of official government warning signs to stick up at your local park warning against this practice.
So there you go. Bummer though, it's such a joy. But it's ok (ie less harmful) to feed them corn, so maybe people could just start doing that instead.. White bread is bad for anything.

Anyway, this is by means of a big fat segue into my ongoing obsession with backyard livestock. Our local council shot a big hole in my dreams; having requested the relevant bylaws, i bring it out every few days and gaze mournfully at it. The spacing requirements they have for a poultry house (chickens and ducks, y'all) mean that i literally cannot fit it onto my little plot. And of course, "large animals" are out of the question, even if it be the sweetest dwarf cow.

And i have a gaggle of nosy neighbours. Because of the highish density of my corner of suburbia, i have 3 neighbours on one side, 2 behind me, and the normal amount on the other sides. i don't know if i could sneak anything by them...

But.. i feel quite determined to have a duck. i mean, they're often indoor pets, right? and they don't smell like chooks can.
I envisage.. a little paddling pool in the courtyard, a little doghouse for its bedding. all of us waddling around in a gleeful bliss.

I also read some cool stuff about aquaponics. One could even raise rainbow trout!, while simultaneously growing a lush forest of vegetables. Backyard aquaponics, it's the most sustainable and low-footprint method of raising meat available on the planet.
I might do this sometime in the future. But right now i'm just finding the info about raising fish just so full of technical blather about boring pumps and pipes..