What's happening to my Anas!?!? Is it the bread?

My fellow duck loving friend Max (or to be more accurate, my Anas rhynchotis-loving friend. He does love his Shovelers, while i have a soft spot for the good old Anas chlorotis, but i digress), just sent me these frankly shocking video.

Here we see a flock of what appears to be Anas platyrhynchos flying in what can only be described as a distinctly performance-enhanced manner!

At first glance they don't appear to be of the North American family, so i can only say that i'm starting to agree with Max that it's something in the local food supply. There appears to be bread on the surface of the pond.... a link there perhaps?

Maybe too early to say, but a quick search across the world wide web reveals still further evidence of a possible link between bread, or perhaps a certain type, and unusual duck behaviour. Observe the frenzy of activity this single slice causes!



I'm sure there is a bread-behaviour link and i'm determined to get to the bottom of this before there are some real problems with my beloved Anas

I'd love to hear your comments on a duck behaviour-bread link, so please comment below!

Strange behaviour linked numbers or diet?

While this unusual surge in strange duck behaviour is certainly ruffling my feathers, i thought i'd hark back to a little tidbit of information from last year that gave me a lot of personal solace: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) preliminary report on mid-continent breeding ducks and habitats.

It found that overall duck populations had increased 14 percent since the previous year with an estimated 41.2 million breeding ducks found in the surveyed area. Fantastic stuff and heart warming news for a friends of the duck

But...

i'm not usually one for conspiracy theories and the like, but could things like this; an unusually large number of breeding ducks, and the strange instances we've been getting reports on be linked? Has this bulge in ducks numbers caused some of the more robust individuals to make an extended flight down south and perpetrate the Anatidae antics we've been seeing?

Or, as Max speculates, is it linked somehow to new carbs and proteins they're eating?

YOur thoughts?
I'm going to dig further.