The original post: /r/askscience by /u/OdettesKnife on 2024-12-24 19:12:06.

I live in western Maryland, so we have a lot of waterfowl in the summer and spring. I have always been taught that they fly south for the winter and that’s why we don’t see them in the colder months.

Last week, we had a day that was unusually warm, about 60-65 degrees, and I was surprised to see that there were ducks in the pond near my house. This confused me, since it seems like it would take them a very long time to fly back up north, and we only had the warm weather for a day. I’ve seen this before, but I guess I’ve never thought too hard about it.