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?

Don't feed bread to ducks!

Hopefully the family illegally feeding the ducks didn't understand English.

I would say just someone who likes animals and adheres to the rules. Duck should not be feed bread and perhaps she was just trying to point that out but obviously it could of been done in a better way. Maybe by saying it loudly she was hoping they would stop because it helps the ducks and the environment. Signs are usually for a reason. I take a bag of uncooked porridge oats and let my daughter throw it on the water so she is interacting with them. The ducks love it and there are no signs at our pond. 🙂

Most people get told where to go when they’re told their behaviour is out of order (even if it is) you focus on the woman’s odd behaviour rather than the family disregarding a rule put in place to protect the wild life under the guise of ‘they’re having nice family time’ I think you and the family are the problem.

To all those that just joined and didn't read the fucking thread...

It's not illegal to feed bread to ducks, nor is it going to harm them! Plenty of links and posts throughout this post to clarify this if you have any confusion.

Makes me annoyed to be fair .. any bread is bad for the ducks .. they should be given bird seed .. the bread also attracts rats ..
people bring great big loaves .. it says on the sign what the ducks should be eating …

She was right but a bit nutty 🤣

So why was there a sign up? Not being funny - genuine question. Thanks.

Feeding bread to ducks dies not harm them and most definitely does not lead to wing deformities. There is so much misinformation on this thread. The advertising campaign to increase the sale of bird food must be one of the most successful misinformation campaigns ever. Most people will not buy bird feed so this results in a reduction in food for the ducks. Please don’t stop feeding your stale baked goods to park ducks. The only harm could come from stuff which is very mouldy.

According to the OP Sign didn’t mention bread. Sign asked for the ducks not to be fed as it attracts vermin.

I fucking hate dickhead people that insist on doing something because it amuses them/their kids, despite there being signs saying not to. My friend’s pony was killed by someone insisting on feeding it veg despite signs asking people not to. Another friend had to have the vet out on Boxing Day because people had put their Xmas dinner scraps in her horse’s field. People are so entitled and stupid nowadays. And as this thread show, people think the ones doing the harm/rule breaking are “doing no harm/normall” and they think the one trying to point out they shouldn’t be is the strange one (albeit she pointed it out in a strange way, but perhaps she was a bit too scared to say it directly?). I despair of people OP, there’s no r common sense or responsibility anywhere!

I know. I noticed that. But the sign meant do not feed them anything at all. All a bit daft really 😄. But thank you for your reply 🌺

As I said up thread, the sign will be up to stop people feeding ducks/water fowl ANYTHING..

It attracts rats, and it attracts... ducks, and geese, and swans.

In some places local authorities, parish councils etc, village green societies, do not want them, they may have a small body of water that will foul up quickly, they don't want to pay lots of money to maintain it but they do want a pretty green with a pond on it, so their solution is to forbid people from feeding the ducks.

I don't believe they actually can do this.. unless theres a local by-law and a penalty for it (which ought be stated on the sign), but I can see why they may want to.

Nothing to do with what is good for ducks.

There are circumstances where feeding of waterfowl or indeed any birds, could be illegal. Within 13km of many airports and airfields, restrictions are in place to control the numbers of certain species so that the risk of a birdstrike is not increased. If there are signs saying not to feed birds, it is very wise to pay heed, because to feed birds would be a breach of the Air Navigation Order and a criminal offence with a hefty fine. Birdstrikes are a very real threat to air safety.

Let me just explain something to you OP as an ecologist yes one of those people who are qualified to know what they are talking about unlike yourself.

Feeding ducks bread is bad, full stop.

Numerous reasons, Let me educate you on to why you are 100% incorrect.
1st feeding ducks bread (old or moldy bread) can cause aspergillosis a fatal lung infection.
2nd feeding ducks and ducklings bread affects their learned behaviour especially that of fear of humans and foraging techniques that later kill them.
3rd excess bread from people like yourself feeding them results in duck malnutrition affecting development and growth. Particularly with ducklings as they go for the easiest option (least resistance and energy loss) just eating bread.
4th feeding like this causes over crowding of breeding areas , leading to over aggression with territorial disputes of wild fowl.
5th Feeding bread to ducks attracts rats that bring disease in their urine "leptospirosis" that affects adults and children. Rats also attracted by bread and human waste foods results in the destruction of other wildlife from predation of rats including the destruction of endangered water voles they prey upon.
6th Bread sinks to the bottom of ponds causing eutrophication, where the rapid spread of toxic algae removes vital oxygen from the water body killing wildlife and aquatic life, it can also lead to toxic algae blooms that harm people and pets.

I could go on all night but just to say, I did read the fucking thread and your wrong very wrong.

Vermin have just as much right to be fed as swans! The bread thing was posted on social media and people went mad.

However, I have no issue with passive aggressive people. It’s the best aggression!

Are rats not part of an eco system??

I’ve heard peas defrosted are enjoyed by ducks, and preferable to bread. Perhaps peas should be the way forward.

Are asking me if rats are part of an natural eco system where by they fit neatly into a food chain and their reproduction levels are maintained in a stable manner or are you actually asking me if rats attracted by anthropogenic activities are unnaturally supported with an anthropogenic biome, which is not good for wildfowl?

I doubt rats are part of a food chain. More a web. Natural or not natural. They have just as much right.

Do you consider a water Vole akin to a rat?

One is covered under Section 9 of Schedule 5 of the Countryside and Wildlife Act for good reason the other is not.

One predates the other, one is endangered the other is certainly not.

You obviously think your being clever, so I`ll leave it here. As arguing with stupid tends to make you so 😊

I’m team family too OP! Can’t believe the replies! There’s always people feeding ducks at our local park and it attracts other birds too. All the kids love it and there’s no signs that say not to do it.

Well the only rat on my river is the water rat (vole) The biggest issue is sewage waste. That is a problem for a natural habitat. Not a few pieces of bread.

Don’t worry about sounding stupid. You did the second you announced you were an ecologist and threw the rat population under the bus!

You obviously didn't because I didn't feed any birds 😂

Who phoned the duck police? 🤣

Please kindly explain where on earth in this post I mentioned my local park being remotely close to an airport?

If this was the case I'm sure the signs would read 'do not feed the ducks as it's illegal" instead of "don't feed the ducks as it attracts vermin"

I'm done with this post now 👋