Woman's weird behaviour at duck pond?

[QT3point14]

Aibu to find this woman weird?

Dh and I took the kids to our local park today. The park has a little pond with some ducks and swans and we walked down to the water as our kids wanted to see the birds.
At this pond, there was another family consisting of a Mum, Dad, and two young children. This family had brought some bread to feed the ducks. Their kids seemed to be loving it and were giggling away, the animals were loving it and our kids were loving watching it.

A random woman walks by with a toddler. She stops and passive aggressively tells her child using a very loud voice, so the other family can hear her that you shouldn't feed the ducks as it's not allowed. The other family ignored her and continued with what they were doing.

The random woman then took her child over to a rusty, dirty old sign and very loudly read it out to her child. The sign states not to feed the ducks as it can attract vermin. Again the family ignored her. She read the sign very loudly again! She then rants that they are feeding the ducks white bread and this is so super harmful. This behaviour went on for a good 5 minutes with the other family continuing to ignore her.

At this point I'm thinking wtf is she trying to achieve here? Either have the balls to approach the family and share your concerns or mind your own business. What on earth was she hoping to achieve by passive aggressively randting in the background? The park was pretty busy and loads of people were staring at this poor family that just wanted to enjoy some time together.

Is it just me or is this a bit bonkers?

It's a new generation of ducks brought up on organic corn. Hipster ducks.

Hipster ducks 🤣

Eh…my DH is ripe for this. He’s the one in the supermarket queue very loudly going on to me about, say, how pathetic people who are rude to staff are, if he sees bad behaviour (terrible example but can’t think of one off the top of my head). Not following a sign with rules written on them would be an absolute trigger for him. I’m always deeply embarrassed…but equally quite jealous of his cojones. I wouldn’t call out the behaviour, even obliquely. I can understand not wanting to engage directly but still wanting to make the point. She sounds like maybe she has as little a care for shame when her principles are involved as my other half 😂

And yeah…bread isn’t ideal for ducks. Birdfood is pennies at B&M, even cheaper to take some oats with you. Load up a little baggie, if you want to feed them with the family.

Hmmmm. Lots of misinformation about...

https://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/cause/official-statement-bread-queens-swan-marker/

Random woman sounds a bit batshit.

There are so many better things to feed ducks than bread but bread isn’t harmful and it’s not going to kill the ducks.

Bread still has calories which the ducks need, it just doesn’t have as many nutrients.

Well, the ducks that everyone used to feed bread to are dead now, you see. It’s not the same ducks.

Are the ducks dead or just sleeping, some have beautiful plumage I believe ?

Some people are socially awkward and not good with confrontation 🤷🏼‍♀️ maybe she was acting a little weird but either way the parents from the other family were still kind of being assholes.

Maybe they didn't see the sign before but should have stopped what they were doing once they found out it was wrong. Feeding the ducks in that specific area was clearly such a problem that signs had been put up to alert visitors to stop and they figured that didn't apply to them for some reason ...?

This lady (that you've decided is a weirdo) sounds like she was just trying her best to stick up for the local wildlife.

No one's taught how to deal with situs like this so we see so much passive aggressive behaviour its untrue.

I wish they'd teach dealing with difficult situations at school. It would make life soooo much easier for everyone!

Another +1 for Ms Rando: only divvy inner-city types give bread to ducks.

Woke, all of them. I met one the other day who insisted they identified as a pheasant.

Bread isn’t harmful to ducks.

She does sound a bit mad however, I had 2 very strong willed kids when they were small. I would never feed bread to ducks because it’s not there natural diet and can be harmful. If I had landed at the lake with my two when they were small and they saw other kids having a ball feeding bread to the ducks I would have to explain to them the reason we don’t/can’t do it, I’d have to show them the sign and there would probably be some crying and shouting from them, “how come those kids can do it”!!etc. I wouldn’t dream of approaching another family, none of my business but I could sound a bit like the mad woman’s whilst trying to explain to my two 😂

Team random woman, even if she came across as a bit bat shit. There is so much ignorance around feeding ducks and wild birds.

You can buy a big tub of duck food on Amazon for a couple of pounds.

But there is the argument ( given in our local nature reserve) that whilst white bread could shorten a duck/goose’s life by about 2 years, the pleasure experienced by small children feeding the waterfowl overrides this, particularly when the birds are so abundant in number. I recall feeding the ducks as a toddler/small child and recognised all of them. Some lived on for years!

As for the swans. They would break your arm for a slice of Warburtons Toastie.

I know that you are not supposed to feed Bread to ducks but on the other hand I've never seen a dead duck! When my kids were little I used to take bags of bird seed instead.

Anaerobic decomposition?

Another vote for proper purpose-made duck food here.

Interesting, thank you!

Small amounts are okay but what if everyone is feeding them over a day? Best not to give them bread at all.

Were you part of this "poor family?" 😉 Regardless she sounds like a complete twat. Bread doesn't attract vermin because the ducks eat it immediately. And if any go in the water it will just dissolve and mice don't swim. If I was part of the bread feeding family I would tell her to please go away 😥

😂😂😂

Of course it’s your business! It’s the business of everyone.

Absolutely. So many kill joys and I’m sure not all of them are vegetarian/eat only free range meat. These waterfowl have a decent life and do not go hungry in winter

Copied from the link shared by pp...

As many of you know there has been a lot of debate about feeding swans and other waterfowl bread. We have always maintained that feeding them bread is fine, Today we received a this statement from The Queen’s Swan Marker, David Barber, MVO, endorsed by Professor Christopher Perrins of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University.

“There has been a great deal of press coverage in recent months regarding the ‘Ban the Bread’ campaign which is confusing many members of the public who like to feed swans. Supporters of the campaign claim that bread should not be fed to swans on the grounds that it is bad for them. This is not correct. Swans have been fed bread for many hundreds of years without causing any ill effects. While bread may not be the best dietary option for swans compared to their natural food such as river weed, it has become a very important source of energy for them, supplementing their natural diet and helping them to survive the cold winter months when vegetation is very scarce.

There is no good reason not to feed bread to swans, provided it is not mouldy. Most households have surplus bread and children have always enjoyed feeding swans with their parents. The ‘Ban the Bread’ campaign is already having a deleterious impact upon the swan population; I am receiving reports of underweight cygnets and adult birds, and a number of swans from large flocks have begun to wander into roads in search of food. This poses the further risk of swans being hit by vehicles. Malnutrition also increases their vulnerability to fatal diseases like avian-flu which has caused the deaths of many mute swans and other waterfowl in the past.

Furthermore, there have been statements made in the media claiming that feeding bread causes angel-wing in swans. Angel-wing is a condition where a cygnet develops a deformed wing. Professor Christopher Perrins, LVO, FRS of the Department of Zoology at Oxford University stated, ‘There is no evidence of a connection between feeding bread and angel-wing; at least some cygnets develop this condition without ever having seen any bread’.

I therefore encourage members of the public to continue feeding swans to help improve their chances of survival, especially through the winter.”

We’d like to Thank every one for their support and we hope that this will help these beautiful birds.

I'm team family.