The Final Feathery Word....
In a suitably fitting postscript to the Indochina adventure, I received an email from Steve last week with THE definitive answer to the duck (and many other ornithological entities) question:

Collective nouns:
A flock of birds
A bevy of quails
A building of rooks
A cast of hawks
A covert of coots
A covey of grouse
A gaggle of geese
A fall of woodcocks
A flight of doves
A flight of swallows
A herd of cranes
A host of sparrows
A muster of peacocks
A nide of pheasants
A paddling of ducks!!!!