Lifelong learning: what did you learn this week?

[DitchingIt]

When steamer ducks ‘steam’ they use their wings in unison like paddles partly to push forwards but mainly to keep their breast up as their feet are so powerful they can push their head under water. They look like they are doing butterfly stroke (human swimming stroke) and the wings are not flapping like flying. They live on the sea around the southern tip of South America and the Falkland Islands. Darwin noted them on his voyage on the Beagle (he wasn’t the first). They get their name and gait from the paddle steamers their wings resembled at the time. See this 1983 article.