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Re: Ducks at Duke Garden



Larry and others,

Sorry to disappoint you, but most of the Duke Gardens birds are not 
"wild" birds.  They are purchased from waterfowl breeders and are kept 
year-round at the gardens.  They include a mix of native and non-native 
species.  A wild bird may ocassionally stop at the pond in the winter, 
but I wouldn't "count" much, if anything, from that pond.  They are, 
however, still fun to watch!
____
Jeff Pippen, Research Associate
Botany Dept. Duke University
----

On Mon, 13 Mar 2000 LSBarden@aol.com wrote:

> Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 04:27:27 EST
> From: LSBarden@aol.com
> To: carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu
> Subject: Ducks at Duke Garden
> 
> Louise and I just visited the ponds at Duke Garden this morning for the first 
> time.  We were amazed to see how tame normally wild ducks are, including (in 
> full breeding plumage) a male shoveler, two male pintails, and two male and 
> one female hooded merganser.  By tame I mean all of them, even the 
> mergansers, were eating bread out of peoples' hands.  Are these year-round 
> resident birds, or will they leave soon for the north?  In either case, how 
> did they get so tame?
> 
> Larry Barden, 1525-F Lansdale Drive, Charlotte, NC 28205, 704-535-6385
> 
> 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeff Pippen   	 				 jspippen@duke.edu
Botany Dept. Box 90342				
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708		PH: (919) 660-7278
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^