DATE: Thursday, May 8, 1997                 TAG: 9705080359

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

DESPITE THE FOWL TRAFFIC, NORFOLK LOVES A PARADE

A spring-time eruption of wildlife in Hampton Roads has occasioned, among other things, a traffic jam along Norfolk's Waterside Drive.

Two colleagues, Kay Tucker Addis and Susan Williams, were caught in the stream of traffic at 5 p.m. last week when a mother mallard duck, trailed by four ducklings, set out to cross Waterside Drive from NationsBank.

Maybe she'd been over there to make a deposit; set up trust funds, who knows? She and her entourage were bent on reaching Waterside bordering the Elizabeth River.

That modest little mama, brown striped, just plunged into the street; traffic halted to let her by.

Farther back, not being able to see what was going on, motorists were frowning, sticking their heads out the windows, said Addis, The Virginian-Pilot's editor.

They'd catch sight of the little procession marching toward Waterside and they'd relax and start smiling.

``What caught my attention,'' said Williams, ``were two people standing by the underground parking garage, big smiles on their faces, and, following their line of vision, I looked back and saw the parade.''

``A gentleman had left his car and was trying to direct both motor traffic and the ducks,'' Addis said.

One duckling had trouble getting over the median curb and when the guide bent to pick it up, the mother duck flew at him in a rage, quacking, flapping her wings.

``He was trying to get the family back together again,'' Williams said. ``He was an older gentleman, in his early 50s in business attire. It was just great to see the Good Samaritan helping our feathered friends.''

And getting scolded, the usual fate of Good Samaritans.

In another sighting, Lucy Herman notes the reaction of neighborhood dogs to the Flora circus by the Pagoda in downtown Norfolk.

They are interested in the horses, she says, but they feign not to notice 6-ton Flora the elephant, even when she strolled to the Dumbwaiter and ate a platter of fresh vegetables just outside.

``I guess if the dogs recognized it, they'd have to challenge it,'' said colleague Pat Lackey. Friends tell me the circus is a delight. If you've been aiming to go, this weekend''s performances are your last chance.

Finally, the pair of mockingbirds that nested in the parking lot within six feet of the entrance to The Pilot succeeded in rearing and launching their fledglings.

In doing so, they braved unseasonably cold weather and a constant passage of people within a couple of feet of their nest overhead.

These premises, when summer comes, should be ringing with a chorus of birds' songs.

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