Do muscovies eat *anything*?

A few days ago I caught my drake jumping up and down removing acorns off a young oak tree and swallowing them whole. I have so far completely failed to get a photo of this...

Yesterday, we seemed to have an explosion in the ant population after the rains, and most of the ducks spent ages standing around the fruit trees picking ants off the mulch. No photo of that either...

Then today a strange creature ran past my door, which appeared to have the head of a lizard, the front end of a duck, and the back end of a chicken. By the time I'd grabbed my camera, the creature had split into two and looked like this.



The duck-lizard combo them jumped into the pond to escape the chicken, but swallowing a lizard isn't easy when you're swimming.



So the duck jumped out again and ran like hell before the chicken could figure out what was going on.



Muscovies are strange creatures.

When you see your big drake with a chipmunk tail hanging out his mouth, than you realize they eat anything!

Fantastic action shots, Burra!

I got some shots of our old drake, Sergio, eating acorns.

He's, er, not the brightest bulb on the tree. But we love him.

Sergio can't reach any acorns, so Alan went to pick some for him.



Here ya go, Sergio!



"I threw one for you, but you lost it, didn't you!"



Here, look, it's easy. In my hand!



Ow! No Sergio! Just the acorns, not the fingers!!!



Yes I know it's confusing, but you can do it if you concentrate.



Playing 'fetch' with a muscovy is always entertaining, though it's a bit futile with one as backward as our old boy. I think he found it in the end.

That is so sweet, I love my muscovies : )

I love the way your pictures tell a story Burra, how sweet!

I've forgotten how great it is to have acorns around - one thing I took for granted in the midwest. Out here in conifer country they're definitely a rarity!