And today on NPR....Ducks who think they are penguins

First of all, that is SO a title you would here on NPR!

Thank you for the compliment, Ellen. I don't think I have an NPR quality voice though, so you'll have to keep reading and imagining. Maybe if I had a British accent....?

Secondly, I have had the song "Midnight train to Georgia" stuck in my head since I wrote that last post.

And third - I do intent to write today about a group of apparently identity-confused ducks.

On my way home from the archive this evening (I am back in Moscow as of 8am this morning, and back at work) I was waiting for the bus by the banks of the Moscow river. The river isn't completely frozen, since we are having a brief heat-wave of 32 degree temps. But there are ice floes roaming around the river. There is also a pack of ducks (a gaggle? a herd?), which I have noticed before. A few weeks ago, I thought to myself, "where do ducks go in the winter?" because this is the extent to which my intellect can exert itself after a day transcribing Soviet bureaucratic documents. Well, I saw my group of ducks again today, and darned if they weren't acting like penguins! Why?, you ask? First of all - its really cold here! Its practically Arctic (or an-arctic) here sometimes! There were ducks hanging out on the river icebergs! And one of them got some food or something, and boy did those other ducks chase after him! (These are Mallards, incidentally). Go home! Its cold here! Fly somewhere!

Does anyone know anything about the migratory (or non-) patterns of ducks? What will they eat when the river freezes? Where will they paddle around? I'm very concerned that this is not normal duck-behavior and that these ducks are doomed to die in Moscow, Russia, which is certainly not a place where I would want to die.

1 week until I come home. I'm hopin' for a heat wave! Something that doesn't require my new puffy coat - oh yeah, I bought a bright red down coat a "pukhovik" in Russian-speak, to insulate my endothermic self.

Coming soon....Desi's top 10 reasons she's thrilled to be leaving Moscow for a brief 10 day respite.