What Came First? The Duck or the Egg?

What Came First?  The chicken or the egg?  The duck or the egg? Same question just different creatures.  Here is a news flash:  I have the answer to this age old question!  I ran it by my wife just to make sure I wasn't way out in left field someplace.  Hearing my obvious and simple answer made her eyes roll and prompted "THE LOOK."  That's the moment when I knew I had it right although I'm not sure if it's THE LOOK or the eye roll that cinched it. 

Let me tell you how this obvious answer came to life, so to speak, in my education starved mind. 

I glanced out the window this morning, looking to the back yard.  Immediately I knew something was going on because there were waves in the bridge pond.  Coming out from under the bridge was Mama Mallard and Daddy Duck.  "GINGER," I hollered, "the ducks are back."  Ginger interrupted her preparations for going to the gym and came over to the window where I was standing.  "They just walked out of the pond on the west side," I said.  The ducks waddled slowly over to the skimmer pond (lowest pond) and hopped in.  "This is a first," I said.  We had never seen them in this pond before (us being the seasoned duck observers that we are).

They swam around for a couple of minutes.  Mama Mallard must have given Daddy Duck some signal, maybe a wink or a duck smile, because he lowered his head and started swimming faster.  She was swimming in a circle and he was cutting her off.  Finally he mounted her and grabbed the top of her head in his duck billed mouth.  No escaping this lover boy now.  It was Sex in the City.  As erotic and steamy as it ever is with a pair of ducks.  It didn't take long and he had done his thing and released her head and plopped from her back into the water.  He quaked, then quacked and flapped his wings and she just flapped her wings.  I guess it worked out nicely for both of them.

So have you figured out the answer to the question?  It was the duck or more precisely the drake and in the case of chickens it's the rooster.  It's almost always the male.  Age old question answered!

Now if only they will bring their brood of ducklings by for a visit.