Eastern Kingbird!

Can You See It?

Neither can i. But an Eastern Kingbird perched on the electric wire across the street yesterday for more than an hour, darting off now and then and swerving through the air like a swallow, to snatch an insect (one i saw him catch was almost as big as he was), and then returning to his spot on the wire to munch on it. As he flew and also as he turned this way and that on the wire, i could clearly make out the thin, white edge of his squared-off tail and the pure white throat, chest and belly.

And today he’s back — this time with the missus! I just now saw him up there, feeding her a big, juicy bug. (I mean, i guess it was juicy.)

So happy to see them up here above the bluff, rather than among the trees along the riverbank! Hope they find lots of bugs and decide to stay.

What a lousy photographer i am! but if you look real hard, near the top, you can see him.

What to Feed Newburgh's Ducks

Sorry, kids: Turns out, bread is one of the worst things you can feed ducks. i know you love to go down to the river to throw stale bits of bread into the water and watch them flock (get it? “Flock?”) to you, but it’s actually bad for them when you do that. Here’s why:

1. It fills them up with non-nutritious food. They love it, though, just like we all love candy, potato chips and other junk food! But it expands in their stomachs so that they can’t get the nourishing food they need.

2. Too many handouts interferes with baby ducks’ ability to learn to forage for the stuff they need to grow and be healthy, and prevents them from being hungry for that nutritious food.

3. Uneaten pieces of bread turn moldy. Green mold causes lung disease in ducks, in addition to attracting rats, insects and other vermin.

4. Too much bread (which they LOVE, don’t forget) not only makes ducks sick and dependent on humans, but also causes them to become aggressive when large flocks see people at the river’s edge. They waddle on up to you and peck at you and won’t leave you alone.

   So, what should we feed ducks instead of bread, popcorn, potato chips and pastries of any kind? Here are some alternatives:

   • cracked corn, which can be bought online or at farm stores;

   • frozen peas or frozen corn, defrosted (cooking not necesary)

   • barley or rice (cooked or raw)

   • plain, uncooked oats

   • grapes, cut in half, so they don’t choke (ducks cannot chew)

   • mealworms, which you can buy online, in pet stores or the pet-food sections of some supermarkets — but they’re very expensive

   • natural greens like cut grass and weeds (these can be fed to ducks in any quantity)

     Bottom line: i’m hoping to talk our City Council into springing for a couple of duck-food dispensers to install down at the river. i’ve seen them in other cities; for something like a quarter, they dispense a handful of cracked corn or other nutritious duck-food. There’s one company that installs solar-powered dispensers. Cool, right? And good for our ducks!

No bread for this beautiful fellow, please! keep hudson-river ducks healthy!