The Sunnyvale Sun

News

Ducks' fate ruffles some feathers

By Stephen Baxter

Splashing around the Sunnyvale Community Center pond, ducks and ducklings have delighted visitors since the pond was built in 2003. But some of the ducklings face an ugly fate.

With a lower winter water level to compensate for rain, the pond's edge is often too high for the ducklings to climb out of the pond, and some duck watchers are concerned the ducklings might drown.

The city's parks and recreation department installed a ramp and some islands for the ducks a few years ago, but some are calling for more ramps.

"There's a 1-foot-wide draining ramp, and it's just a tiny little thing in a huge area," said Millie Winsberg, who works in the community center complex. "I really hope that something can be done because it's heart-rending," she said. Winsberg and others have complained to parks officials about it.

Scott Russell, supervisor of the parks and recreation department, said the department decided against adding ramps.

"Our opinion is that it is adequate for the ducks," he said last week.

The pond was never intended to accommodate the roughly 60 waterfowl that swim there, Russell said, and the mallards are protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and aren't supposed to be touched.

"Tampering with the nest, the eggs, the chicks or the adults is prohibited by law, and as cruel as it may seem at times, the best plan of action is to let nature take its course,'' the parks department stated in a bulletin.

Wildlife experts also have said a mother is lucky if one chick in a clutch of six survives.

The city could try to get permits to manipulate eggs to manage their population, as Cupertino looked into for its large duck population at Memorial Park.

That park hosts so many ducks and geese that it costs about $30,000 annually to unclog duck and goose feces from the filtration system. Cupertino Parks and Recreation Director Therese Smith said last week signs that warn against feeding the waterfowl aren't working.

"Right now there's really nothing to enforce it--the only thing that would really work would be a fine," she said.

The Sunnyvale parks department called the Community Center ducks a challenge because feathers often clog filters, fountainheads and pumps, and the droppings litter sidewalks and pollute the pond.

"I know people are interested in the welfare of the animals, and that's a commendable thing," Russell said, adding that more ramps are not planned.

Residents such as Winsberg said they enjoy watching the ducklings frolic in and around the pond, and it's hard to watch them flail.

"It hurts me deeply to see it," she said.