Dear Editor,
A duck hen selected our front yard to make a nest and laid 18 eggs in the nest. We guarded her from the dogs and cats that roamed the neighborhood. Each morning she made a trip to the lake at Lakeside Park to swim and feed. Although we put out food and water for her she still made the morning trips. On June 25 she made the ill fated trip to Lakeside and never returned, soon her nest grew cold and the eggs could never hatch. We had planned to relocate her and her babies to our pond after hatching however we never got the chance because she never returned. I remember what the Nazis said when hauling off people the camps “they were handled humanly”. We knew she would not continue setting if we relocated her and her nest. So June 25 was the sad end to our duck and her soon to be family. This is one side the city and Park failed to look at. How many others lost their nest full of eggs and soon to be babies?
About 1959 our family donated a drake and three hens as requested by the city and put them at Lakeside Park. We feed them and monitored them for a few weeks so they could readjust to their new home. In 1964 we could still find parts of this duck family at the park. I am sure part of that family still existed at the park till June 25.
Edwin Kime
Pittsburg
PITTSBURG —
