THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
THE DUCKS WERE excited to see us.
They spotted us long before we reached the pond, and they surged up the banks to meet us - actually, to meet the sacks of bread they saw swinging from our hands.
It was February, it was briskly cold, it was cabin fever-time. It was, so to speak, a great day for ducks.
Williamsburg, via the James River Bridge, provides great locations for meeting ducks, both wild ones that migrated here to spend the winter and supposed-to-be-wild ones that live a soft life begging bread from tourists.
Start at the pond behind the Golden Horseshoe golf clubhouse in Williamsburg. You can park next to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center and walk down a small hill to the pond. The ducks will see you coming.
The mallards and mallard mixes that paddle around the pond are enthusiastic. They tug on pant legs if the bread isn't handed out fast enough. They are noisy and pushy enough to frighten small children, so be prepared to be just as pushy as they are, to keep them back.
Still, they are beautiful, with their glossy green heads and jaunty curled feathers at the base of their tail. There was even a solid black mallard. Mallard? Well, it had the distinctive curled feather, so there was some mallard in there somewhere.
Children will enjoy getting so close to the birds. While they might not enjoy all those webbed feet stepping on their shoes, they will get a kick out of ducks taking cookies from their hands, as long as you help fend off the more aggressive ones.
The ducks fed, we eschewed the familiar Colonial streets to drive a little farther to College Landing Park. This is a nice little waterfront park with a short boardwalk and pier extending over College Creek and the marsh. The historical marker at the brick-walled overlook on the bluff tells you that this site was called Princess Anne Port in the 1600s, one of two ports that served Williamsburg in those days. From here, military supplies were brought in, and tobacco was exported.
A little longer drive will take you to Jamestown Island, where Canada geese live year round. The helpful ranger at the visitor center notes that these geese nest along Colonial Parkway during the summer, creating ``gooseblocks'' when they take their fuzzy offspring to the other side of the road.
On your way home, drive along the James River behind the Mariner's Museum in Newport News and look for wintering ducks on the river. Cross the James River Bridge and see even more.
Bring binoculars and you can get a great look at canvasbacks, with their wedge-shaped heads, and little buffleheads with their black-and-white crests.
Pete Money at the Virginia Living Museum notes that scaup and scoters of various sorts are fairly common along the river in winter. Common loons may also be seen, some of which have flown in from Alaska. Money, tongue firmly in cheek, notes that you can tell the Alaskan loons from others, even when you can't see the tell-tale leg band, because they look really tired.
Winter also brings, in lesser numbers, ruddy ducks and mergansers. Look on any given day, Money says, and you'll likely see lots of different waterfowl.
Come spring, most of these birds will hop the Atlantic Flyway back to Canada and other points north for nesting.
Money also notes that rough water attracts different sorts of waterfowl than the relatively calm water of the river. Surf scoters and old squaw ducks may be seen in the Chesapeake Bay off Grandview Beach and at other locations around Hampton Roads, he said.
Use all your stale bread in Williamsburg, because you won't get close enough to the wild birds to feed them by hand. But the combination of tame and wild along the way should be enough to make the trip, well, just ducky. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DIANE TENNANT
It's easy to get up close and personal with Williamsburg's friendly
ducks.
by CNB