Outside a chateau in Provence on Monday, a loud and definite quacking struck up late at night. Fairly sure it was ducks I stood my ground until the next morning despite derision of my bedfellow. Forced to eat my canard the next day, we learned it was frisky French frogs (grenouilles) in their ‘saison d’amour’.
Not being one to back down easily, I wonder can anyone tell me if ducks do, in any circumstance, on any continent, quack at night. I so hate to be proved wrong.
Merci bien a vous!
Siobhán
Since I capture birds that get loose in the building by throwing a sheet over them, causing them to immediately fall asleep, I would guess “no” while I wait for someone more knowledgeable to show up.
The real question is, if ducks quack at night, do they echo? 
To which, the correct response is, “no.”
(but the quacks do) 
When I was a kid, I sometimes spent the night at my grandpa’s farm. There was a pond near the farmhouse. On and near the pond were quite a few ducks, some of whom were permanent residents and some of whom were just passing through. During the night they seldom made a sound, but every now and then there would be a commotion, a sudden flurry of quacking and the sound of wings flapping. Grandfather said that predators such as coyotes sometimes attacked the flock of ducks during the night.
So am I to infer that ducks do not quack when they are alseep?
Sure, they will quack at night if they are disturbed or restless. Many birds don’t really sleep through the night - they may wake and shift around and call at any time.
Colibri
Well, they’d better not call me at 3:00 a.m. !!! :mad:
(From now on, I’ll make damned sure that I take the phone off the hook before I go to sleep.)
I grew up next to a lake. Ducks do quack at night. Often do to a fracas of some sort, probably predation, but sometimes a lone duck would wander around quacking. I think maybe when lost, but you could tell it was moving around. I don’t recall ever hearing geese at night though.
Loons call often at night.
Thankyou. I am concluding then that ducks probably don’t quack on a regular, casual, conversational basis at night time, as they might during the day, but if restless, disturbed or distressed, they may quack occasionally in the midnight hour?
I think this is possibly enough to allow me to retain a modicum of dignity, so many thanks to one and all.
Siobhán
Nurse Carmen
It almost seems as if you’re feeding me that straight line. 
“But, but, Daisy, can’t you stay?”
“No, Donald, I must migrate, it’s my nature. See you next year. (sniff)”
Perhaps he was looking for Tonto?
That’s when Caller ID comes in handy.
“Sleep, damn you!”
Thanks Wile E
Somebody had to pick up on that straight line.
“But…the duck didn’t quack in the nighttime.”
“THAT was the curious incident!!!”
Maybe it was just the echo of a day quack on a VERY distant surface.
Geese, btw, make excellent guardians as they will make quite a ruckus at any intrusion. I know nothing about ducks.
One of those bastards bit me when I fed him at the zoo at the tender age of three.
Nasty geeses, we hates them…
How do we get down off this thread?
You get down from a goose. (When I get a goose, I need to climb down from the ceiling.)