Duckasauraus Rex

Albuquerque, in an amusing attempt at creating the illusion of biodiversity in the middle of the desert, has a little park in the center of the city called "Tingley Beach" that consists of a cluster of foul-smelling, man-made duck ponds.  While the park itself is kind of dismal, anyone who knows either me or Dean can understand its irresistible appeal: BIRDS. And lots of them!  So today we braved the 103 degree heat and the Albuquerque sun to commune with some ducks (and get rid of some Triscuit that had been sitting in our pantry for about 5 months now).

We quickly divided the birds into 5 major categories:

1.) The omnipresent Canada geese:

"Hi. Give me that Triscuit or I'll eat your fiance."

2.) Assorted cute ducks:

We named this one Pato. He followed us around and hid behind us whenever the geese got too rowdy.

3.) The Duckasaurus Rex (we had no idea that the scariest of the birds was yet to come):

This was right before he tried to eat my whole hand.

chomp chomp

4.) THE KNOBHEAD, truly the most terrifying of all God's creatures:

The Knobhead approacheth...

THE KNOBHEAD CONTINUES APPROACHETH-ING

The Knobhead, displeased that I've run out of Triscuits, sizes me up to decide whether I would make a good dessert. 

After trundling up to us and eating all the rest of our Triscuits, the knobheaded duck started to hiss and shake uncontrollably, bobbing its head up and down.  It looked like it was having some kind of duck-seizure.  Maybe it was some arcane display of duck dominance, but when it decided to reach down and take a chomp at my toe, we figured we should move to a different pond.  It seemed unfazed when we got up and tried to shoo it away, so I decided to put an end to the duck terrorism and started running directly at it, which finally made it retreat back into the water. Looks like the people aren't the only aggressive part of Albuquerque...

Oh, and of course, the 5th category of bird: "Other."

Hurr de durr I'mma piegon y'all!