{"id":404,"date":"2015-10-07T16:31:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T16:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=404"},"modified":"2015-10-07T16:37:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T16:37:36","slug":"404","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"Ecosystem ripple effect: Killing ducks, one loaf at a time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"duck1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What started out as an innocent trip a local park a half-decade ago became a learning experience.
\nFor lunch, the ducks and geese of Middleburg were eating leftover bread from my pantry. For supper, I was eating humble pie.
\nIt all began that morning. One of my then 3-year-old daughter\u2019s favorite pastimes was to visit the duck pond in Middleburg and interact with the waterfowl. The weather was beautiful and the bread ends and stale hotdog buns were taking over one shelf in our pantry back home. It all added up to an inevitable waterside expedition.<\/p>\n

\"duck3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the pond, the ducks and geese greeted us with open beaks … to be exact, 63 open beaks \u2014 from big ones (Canada geese) to small ones (baby Mallard ducks). It was as if my daughter and I were mobbed by some waterfowl version of the paparazzi. Even a few large carp decided to join in the hunt for stray bread crumbs.
\nThroughout this barrage of feathers and webbed feet, my daughter was in her own little world. She talked to the ducks as if they were her best friends. She would squat down near a duck, drop a few bread crumbs, and then coach the bird through its meal. When a duck waddled over and missed out on a flying hoagie roll or piece of whole wheat, my daughter made sure it didn\u2019t feel left out for long.
\nHer interactions with the birds were priceless. A goose honked. A duck quacked. My daughter giggled. I laughed. Sharing a moment on a beautiful day in the outdoors. It was a neat experience, and I decided to write a small outdoors column about the experience.
\nTo get the blood pumping and creative juices flowing before hitting the keyboard, I decided to search the internet for similar feel-good stories of little kids feeding ducks. I figured it would help channel me into the proper, cutesy frame of mind the story deserved.<\/p>\n

\"duck2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I went to the search engine and typed in, \u201cfeeding ducks bread.\u201d
\nThe first result was a Yahoo! Answers question asking: I have some home-raised ducks. What can I feed them other than worms? They don\u2019t seem to like bread or corn.
\nThe answer: Never feed ducks bread!
\nWhy couldn\u2019t you feed ducks bread?
\nThe Yahoo! response continued, \u201cAnother reason to restrain from feeding ducks is that although ducks seem to love bread, it is not nutritious. White bread in particular is made from refined flour and is not proper for avian nutrition. Many ducks suffer from degenerative liver disease because they eat too much. Also, leftover bread and duck droppings pollute the water. The uneaten bread turns into a deadly mold called Aspergillus, which is fatal to ducks, fish and other animals. Rotting bread can also fester other deadly diseases and parasites, particularly duck virus Enteritis, which with a single outbreak will kill all the ducks of that area. Duck droppings can also breed diseases such as Avian Botulism and a parasite that causes swimmers\u2019 itch. Feeding ducks bread is like feeding dogs chocolate. They may seem to like it, but in the end it does more harm than good.\u201d
\nAt first, I was annoyed by this.
\nGo ahead, take away my ability to throw rice at a wedding (allegedly the dry rice swells in small birds\u2019 abdomens and causes major issues) and to release helium balloons into the air (whales and other animals could choke on the balloon fragments), but feeding leftover bread to ducks is like watching football on Thanksgiving. You don\u2019t mess with an American tradition.
\nSo, I decided to forget the first post of my search \u2014 to write it off as some sort of ecological over-reaction \u2014 and checked out the next one. And then the next one, and the next one. I began to notice a trend.
\nPerhaps feeding ducks bread isn\u2019t a smart thing to do.
\nIt seems that Butterkrust bread is to ducks as Butterscotch Krimpets are to people.
\nSome more \u2018Web wisdom\u2019 included, \u201cWhen wild ducks are fed human foods, their organs become engorged and fatty on the inside and they quickly die from malnutrition, heart disease, liver problems and other health complications. An overfed, malnutritioned duck is sluggish and can\u2019t escape from predators. Feeding wild ducks adversely affects natural migration patterns, which are critical for their ongoing survival.\u201d
\nIn the Gloucestershire town of Newent, the town council passed a law in 2004 banning people from feeding bread to ducks. Since then, numerous other towns in England, Canada, the U.S. and additional countries followed suit.
\nThe New Canaan (Connecticut) Nature Center warns that, \u201cFeeding bread to ducks and geese is the equivalent of feeding your child nothing but candy. Ducks and geese like bread, and will clamor for it much like a child will ask for candy. But bread has no nutritional value for waterfowl.\u201d
\nThe center also warns that feeding ducks bread will ultimately lead to overcrowding on ponds. I wonder if 63 ducks\/geese would be considered overcrowding on the Middleburg pond? I would assume so.
\nThe bottom line is that in order to help waterfowl around the Valley, we all need to be flexible enough to make changes, ruffled feathers or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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