This winter's weather doesn't get ducks down (canada)

[Donna]

A lot of Kingstonians are heading south this time of year.

A lot of ducks are not.

It's the third week of January and the waterfowl can still be found in large numbers at various locations around this area -- Confederation Park, the foot of West Street, Fairfield Park in Amherstview and the Howe Island ferry dock, to name just a few.

"It's been a relatively mild winter, so they'll be around along the shore as long as there's open water and there's food for them," said Erling Armson, a biologist with Ducks Unlimited in Kings ton. "Open water is a good food resource."

Most ducks obtain their food by either diving or dabbling. Diving ducks -- the ones in this area include Greater Scaups, Lesser Scaups and Goldeneyes -- feed on molluscs such as zebra mussels.

Dabbling ducks -- such as Mallards, which are prominent in this area -- just dip their heads in the water to get plants and roots.

"If the water doesn't freeze, they may stay all winter," said Armson.

Staying all winter can present problems for the ducks.

"If it gets really cold, they can run out of food, weaken and the mortality rate increases," said Armson. "There may be less plant material, less molluscs. That's another reason to keep going south -- to get access to plentiful food resources."

When the ducks are here, their food resources shouldn't include humans, some of whom regularly feed the waterfowl during winter.

That tends to keep them hanging around," said Armson. "It's probably not a great idea to do it for two reasons: it keeps them here when normally they would push out (south), and the food provided by the average person, corn or whatever, doesn't have the nutritional value that their natural food does.

"It's not good for the health of the bird population."

When the weather does get colder -- this is Canada, after all -- the ducks will head to the United States.

"When the water freezes, that will push them farther south, down to New York State, Pennsylvania," said Armson.

If it's cold in those areas, he said, diving ducks and Mallards both will go farther south to Chesapeake Bay (the largest estuary in the U.S., which lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia).

Migrating south has obvious advantages, said Armson.

"When they move south, because the weather is warmer, they find better food resources," he said.

Should they choose to stick around this region, the waterfowl won't be caught by surprise by an extended cold snap.

"Ducks can anticipate big fronts moving through," Armson said. "They hunker down or move in front of the (cold) front or move south of it."

During winter, they float on the frigid water, prompting people to wonder why the ducks aren't frozen.

"They have an interesting circulatory system," said Armson. "It's like an anti-freeze effect."

A duck's skin is suffused with blood vessels that carry warm blood from inside the body to the outer surfaces.

Also helping it to stay warm in winter are insulating feathers, which retain body heat by trapping warm air near the skin, and thick layers of down, which conserve heat.

"They can tolerate cold weather," said Armson.