Be Kind to Your Webfooted Friends
Author: Unknown
Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's mother,
Be kind to your friends in the swamp (Alternate line: She lives on the edge of a swamp)
Where the weather is always damp.
You may think that this is the end,
Well it is, but to prove we're all liars,
We're going to sing it again,
Only this time we'll sing a little higher.
(Repeat the song but sing it a bit higher. Continue for as many rounds as you can stand!)
Last Verse
You may think that this is the end.... Well you're right!
Alternate Version
Mixed together with words from "Barefoot Boy in Shoes" and "Ain't We Crazy"
'Twas midnight on the ocean, not a streetcar was in sight.
The sun was shining brightly in the middle of the night.
A barefoot boy with shoes on stood there sitting in the tree
And when he put his glasses on, he heard this melody:
Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's brother.
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp;
He's a dilly through and through. (Alternate line: Where the weather's always damp)
You may think that this is the end,
But it isn't 'cause there's another chorus.
'Twas midnight on the ocean when the rain began to snow
He hurried to me slowly 'cause the time had come to go.
I said I'd wait forever if it didn't take too long;
And suddenly we harmonized this crazy, mixed-up song.
Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's brother.
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp;
He's a dilly through and through. (Alternate line: Where the weather's always damp)
You may think that this is the end,
But it isn't 'cause there's another chorus.
'Twas midnight on the ocean on the day I married him.
I didn't know his name was Fred, that's why I called him Tim. Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's brother.
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp;
He's a dilly through and through. (Alternate line: Where the weather's always damp)
You may think that this is the end,
Well it is.
You may remember images of ducks and other wildlife covered with oil after the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010. Volunteers and workers pitched in on the clean‐up. But what might that have done to their health? NIEHS is leading a long-term research to understand the effects on clean-up workers and volunteers.
Do you like ducks (and other web‐footed friends)? How about becoming a wetlands ecologist? Learn about what a wetland ecologist does and how to become one from Dr. Lief Sigren.
The Duke University Superfund Program’s Learning Barge is considered the world’s first floating wetlands classroom, powered by sun and wind and equipped with live wetlands to study. The program has provided opportunities for students, with a focus on fourth‐graders, as this article about the "Learning Barge" describes.
L'Oie Toulouse? Qui, Moi?
About three years ago, a white Canada goose (Branta canadensis canadensis) or perhaps an imposter appeared on our NIEHS campus.
Being Single is "Not for the Birds"! – Canada Geese
This update is for those of you who are still young enough to remember. The White Goose (WG), known around campus and in the local press, as Toulouse, has spent many hours at NIEHS over the course of 4 plus years.