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My Summer at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco-CenterBy: Jeb Dillman
This summer, I was fortunate enough to volunteer at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco-Center. During my two week stay, I learned more about waterfowl than I thought was possible.
Some of the jobs I did were to feed some waterfowl in a row of pens called "The Streets". These pens were home to some of the more interesting waterfowl, like the Pink-Eared ducks and the White-Winged Wood Ducks. I was also in charge of taking care of some of the goslings, or "Gossies". Taking care of them meant taking them from their indoor pen to the outside ones so they could graze on grass and get some sunshine, cleaning out their indoor pens, feeding and watering them outside, then bringing them back inside before we left for the afternoon.
One of the fun things I got to do was to work in the "show-bird pen" where all of the hand-raised birds were held. Most of the birds in this pen were female, because as males get older, they tend to be more aggressive and territorial. Some of the birds in this pen were a White-Faced Tree duck, a Javan Tree duck, a Fulvous Tree duck, some Indian Runners, and my favorite, a pair of Magpie Geese. This pen was definitely my favorite one because I was able to interact with the birds.
Since Scotland Neck is about a two hour drive from my hometown of Clinton, NC, I stayed with Mr. Mike and Mrs. Ali Lubbock, the owners of Sylvan Heights. After a hard days work at Sylvan Heights, we came home and just relaxed by doing things like fishing, reading, and watching TV. When it came time, everybody sat down to a delicious home-cooked meal fixed by Mrs. Ali and we discussed Sylvan Heights and just waterfowl in general. I learned almost as much at the dinner table as I did while working during the day. On most nights though, the house was just as busy as Sylvan Heights. It was just like a train station with people constantly coming and going. At any time in the afternoon, there could have been as many as ten or fifteen people in or around the house. I think most of them were there just to "steal" some food from the kitchen.
Some of my favorite birds I worked with were the Magpie Geese, the Baikal Teal, and the White-Faced Tree ducks. In these species of waterfowl, like all of the other birds, each individual had a different personality. But what struck me about these in particular were the more interesting personalities of the waterfowl of these species. For example, the White-Faced ducks always hang out and do everything together, including cleaning, swimming, and just flying from place to place. The Magpie Geese were unusually friendly birds and were very curious about people and their belongings, in particular their hair and clothes! Each day when I delivered their millet, they would rush to eat from my hand and peck through my hair searching for stray pieces of food. Although they were very persistent, they never actually hurt me.
Working at Sylvan Heights was probably the most educational thing I have ever done. It was a great experience for me and I look forward to going back again next summer to see all of the young ducklings that were hatched this year closer to their full color and size, and also to see what's new at Sylvan Heights. |