Know your facts on waterfowl

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Whether you feed the ducks or hunt them, waterfowl are an integral part of Narragansett Bay. A recent survey showed many thousands of ducks, swans, geese and other waterfowl on our waters, and many more Canada geese on land. Years back the geese population was in balance, but excessive feeding of migratory birds and the release of geese from neighboring states where they are bred for game hunting upset this. Instead of migrating, they decided to take up permanent residence in Rhode Island. Many find these birds a nuisance. One goose produces a pound of poop a day. This adds up with a big flock, and can contaminate the water and spread disease. Golf courses actually hire working dogs like corgis to herd the geese away from the playing areas.

Cormorants are those birds you see swimming with their bodies submerged. Their long, slightly hooked bill is ideal for catching fish. Diving down to a depth of 140 feet or more, they paddle with their feet as well as using their wings. Special muscles in their eyes change the shape of their lens so they can see well underwater. Cormorants tend to feed on scup, tautog and flounder, and this threatens fish stock. In the early 1980s they were strictly a migratory bird, passing through Rhode Island on their way north or south. Now there are over 2,000 that have taken up residence and nest in trees along the shore. Their droppings destroy leaves and on some small islands in the bay they have completely defoliated and killed the trees. In many areas, U.S. Fish and Wildlife has put management plans in place to control their population especially by destroying their eggs.

A third common bay bird is the merganser duck. Most do migrate through, enjoying our hospitality as the weather warms. Males have a glossy green head and a long thin red bill. Mergansers nest in hollow logs, holes in the ground or in trees. Their young leave the nest in one day after hatching and get their own food. This attractive bird eats aquatic plants and some shellfish, but some are a host of the annoying swimmer’s itch. On hot summer days, shallow water clam diggers, especially children, may go home with red raised itchy dots on their skin. The swimmer’s itch organism spends part of its life in the little black nassa snail in shallow water. It emerges, and must find a merganser duck to burrow into and complete its life cycle. When it burrows into you by mistake, it dies and releases the itchy chemical. Certainly not life-threatening, it is only a short-term minor annoyance. When you walk out of the water with that basket of quahogs, give your arms and legs a quick scrub with soapy water and it should do away with most of it.

Swans are a graceful addition to our bay. These lovely birds are the subject of stories, ballets, etc. They mate for life and raise their young with care. CBS’s Sunday Morning did a segment on the beauty of the swans in Greenwich Cove. However, swans are actually a destructive, invasive species. Unlike the stories, they are aggressive and territorial, attacking our native waterfowl that are attempting to nest, even killing them. There are recorded incidents of swans attacking humans by overturning kayaks and canoes. Blows from their wings are strong enough to break a human arm bone. How did they get here? In the 1800s, they were brought over from Europe for parks and large estates. Their wings were clipped at first, but soon their owners neglected this and they flew to other areas and settled in to nest. In 1972, there was a wild population of about 300. In 2005, there were around 1,500 and the population continues to increase. Besides their aggressive behavior, they eat an enormous amount - 40 percent of their body weight - and are limiting the natural foods of our native waterfowl besides destroying our eelgrass. All Atlantic states are making efforts to control this problem.

If you are tied up in a quiet anchorage for the evening, your boat may be approached by geese, swans and ducks. While it is fun to throw them scraps, this is not a good idea. There are several reasons. First of all, it hurts them by filling their bellies with empty calories and they don’t eat their natural food. They become weak and susceptible to disease. It also encourages them to stay here when they should migrate. The Department of Environmental Management is trying to keep it all in balance, and now there is a law against feeding waterfowl, with a fine attached, as incentive to let nature take over and put the balance back in place.

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