Releasing domestic ducks in Mill Creek Park is a less-than-kind act

I do wish that people, how ever well-intended, would quit releasing domestic waterfowl in Mill Creek Park.

I notice that two snow-white domestic ducks were recently released into the small pond below the Lily Pond.

Although they are quite feisty and scoot away rapidly at the approach of strangers as they graze on the grass in the nearby picnic area, they remain relatively easy prey for dogs and other predators.

And even if they should manage to survive until late fall, their prognosis is dim since they are flightless and could not escape their frozen confines as do the wild ducks and the Canada geese (now with numerous goslings) with whom they romp.

A few years ago, a group of flightless ducks, some domestic and a few the product of liaisons between domestic and wild birds, didn’t survive a winter at the Lily Pond.

Obviously emaciated, they would pathetically rush across the ice to visitors to the pond, hoping for a handout. However, enough people did not feed them, and they eventually froze or starved to death, huddled in a little group in the middle of the pond. Crows picked over the remains.

Four large domestic geese released a few years ago in the Lily Pond-Lake Glacier area fared better. They could fly short distances, and as their confines froze they migrated two or three miles south to the open waters of Mill Creek near the Silver Bridge. There, some kind souls fed them and they survived at least one winter.

After the four birds had been in the park for some time, three members of this small flock (as I understand it) were captured and taken to an area farm.

But one very hardy member of this group, of the Toulouse breed, remained behind and was an obvious and very vocal presence at the Lily Pond, Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset for a number of years. It even apparently mated with a Canada goose, resulting in geese which are obviously hybrids, given the coloration and shape of their heads.

The Toulouse parent disappeared a year or so ago, but two hybrids survived last winter’s rigors and can be seen in the Lake Glacier area. Despite their Canada goose heritage, they are probably flightless.

I do think that the park should take responsibility for any domestic fowl released in the park … and that they certainly shouldn’t be left to freeze or starve to death in the winter.

Robert R. Stanger, Boardman