Geronimo!

It's not every day that you see 1-day-old ducklings jumping out of holes in trees. Which is a good thing since you'd probably get quite bored of the sight if you did. But it's a rare vision for those of us who don't live in the jungle so the footage from the episode of Planet Earth broadcast last Sunday is a total treat. I can't figure out how to take a screenshot from a realplayer clip (anyone who does know feel free to enlighten me), so I have been forced to use a photo of common-or-garden yellow fluffy ducklings (via dazzled) rather than the more exotic Mandarin ducklings that feature in the vid. But it's not such a hardship as they're still pretty cute.

The video, however, is just superb. 9 brand new ducklings launch themselves out of a hole in a tree many feet up above the jungle floor, and fall headlong towards a bouncy bed of leaves. But it's not the falling that's the best bit, it's the way they bravely flap their minature "wings" on the way down to try and slow their decent. Priceless. Visit the Planet Earth clips library here, find the Programmes section (it has 87 clips), then use the drop down menu to find Mandarin Duck Dive. I promise you'll be glad you did. And while you're there, watch Great White Predator too.

Comments

[kt]

argh, bbc limiting footage to uk users only! sounds amazing though...!

[Regan]

For those of us on the wrong side of the duckpond, as it were:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYrr25Y5GF8

I vote for the little guy who goes UNDER the log. ;)

[Peter]

Yes if I could see the video here in the US I could get it with the "Grab" utility built into Mac OSX - I use Tiger - it spits out a tiff file that I convert to a jpeg with another program called Graphic Converter from Germany.

If anyone on the other side of the pond has a Mac or a similar PC screen grab capability you can pause the Real Player video and grab a screen shot.

[Peter]

Ah - thanks for the YouTube link...I sent four pictures I just grabbed to you at the inky circus email address. Enjoy.

[Katie]

The youtube video is longer than the BBC clip, which stops when all the ducks are out of the tree! Love the longer version. Love the ducklet who goes under the log - 10 out of 10 for problem solving. I'm sure (as a license fee payer)I should be objecting to the appearence of BBC footage on youtube, but I just dont. The more we Brits can share the beeb with the world the better. And there is definitely enough David Attenborough to go around!

[Hugh Powell]

just a note when planning next summer's hiking - there are ducks all over British Columbia that also nest in holes in trees: the wood duck (which is a slightly less ornate version of the mandarin), buffleheads, two kinds of goldeneyes and a few mergansers. No jungle required! (Just a helmet to ward off plummeting ducklings.)

[Katie]

Plummeting ducklings. Yet another reason to love BC...

[kt]

thanks Regan!