Mill Pond’s Spillway Keeps Claiming Victims

A class of students taking a wildlife course at Nassau Community College witnessed two Canada goose goslings being swept by the current over the spillway at Mill Pond in Wantagh, NY. The students were taking pictures for a required photo essay while a family of Canada geese with six goslings slowly swam by. Suddenly, Kevin yelled, “Hey, they’re going over.” As quick as a toilet’s flush, two goslings were caught by the current and washed over the falls. Uninjured by the three-foot drop to the bottom, the goslings began frantically peeping, calling out to their parents.

 

Canada geese are very protective of their goslings. Both parents returned to the spillway and called back to their lost offspring. Goslings can’t fly, so there is no way for the young birds to get above the falls to rejoin the family group. “It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Jennifer. “All that the goslings and parents could do was call back and forth to each other. The remaining goslings stayed with their parents. In a second, the rest of the family would be lost, and all we could do was watch from behind a cast-iron fence.

Carl Molenari, a Vietnam Vet with Special Forces training and a student in the course said: “I had to use all the self-control I could muster to keep from scaling that iron fence and diving into the spillway to rescue the goslings.” During class time, it would be out of line for me to take a risk, so I didn’t take one. But listening to the constant pleading of those two lost goslings kept triggering my instincts to act”. A cast-iron fence guards the landside of the spillway, protecting children of park visitors from finding a similar fate.

Jessica, a Wantagh resident who lives adjacent to the park and is a student in the course, screamed for someone to help the goslings. “Isn’t there someone we can call to rescue them?” she pleaded. “The police, the SPCA, the fire department, anyone?” The rushing water leaving the spillway demands constant swimming for either fish or fowl to keep in place. The current soon carried the tired goslings into the long drainage pipe running from Mill Park, under Merrick Road, and out on the south side of Bellport St. into a bulkheaded canal leading to the bay. The hundred-yard trip through the drainage tunnel will not harm the goslings. It’s the solitude awaiting them on the other side that will. Separated from parental care, the goslings’ ability to survive is unlikely, being a tasty treat for gulls and crows.

In 1990, a public outcry ensued after several visitors to Mill Pond Park witnessed the same horror: a family of mallard ducklings meeting a similar demise. In response, the Nassau County Parks Department installed a fence protecting the pond side of the spillway. During the past year, Mill Pond has undergone extensive improvements, during which the animal safety fence in front of the spillway was removed. Unfortunately, it has not been replaced in time for this year’s waterfowl breeding season, leaving the spillway open to take its toll. June is almost over, and up to this point, not a single mallard duckling is anywhere to be seen on Mill Pond.

Then It Happened Again!

Waterfowl at Mill Pond have grown used to being fed by park visitors. While standing by the spillway, discussing the fate of the lost goslings, Nassau Community College’s Animal Ecology class attracted a few white domestic ducks looking for a food handout. The ducks patiently circled in the water when suddenly an adult white Peking duck, caught by the current, went flapping and quacking over the spillway.

Most of the time, this is not a problem for adult waterfowl, as they can easily fly back to the pond. The Pekin is a domestic breed of duck. It has been genetically selected to be plump and juicy, not for athletic ability. Peking ducks can not fly.

Within less than half an hour, the students witnessed a second spillway accident. The adult Peking duck was strong enough to navigate the current, but still had no means of getting back to the pond.

What the Park Department did have was a narrow wooden ramp running from the bottom of the spillway back to the top of the dam. Unfortunately, Peking ducks are incapable of using the ramp to get back, as domestic bird brains are not wired in a way that enables ducks to contemplate going in the wrong direction to eventually get where they want to go. The ramp is old. It had been put in place before the 1990 installation of the now-defunct pondside guard fence, but it was ineffective. Not until a Nassau student surveyed the problem did a solution seem possible.

Jason, also of Wantagh, courageously acted in disregard of the many signs picketing the pond’s perimeter warning park visitors not to feed the ducks. Using bread from his lunch, he balled the bread into bits that he could accurately throw. Jason strategically tossed the bread, aiming to make a trail from where the duck stood, up the ramp, and back to the pond. Peking ducks will never pass up a free meal, no matter how agitated they are (they are driven by the part of their genetic heritage that keeps them plump). It didn’t work several times because of a bad throw, or the duck would lose its focus and fall off the ramp. Eventually, it all came together. Jason and the duck worked as one, and the Peking ate its way safely back to the pond.

(Originally published in the Merrick Observer 2009, ©Frank W. Reiser)

How to footnote this page.

Reiser, Frank W. (2009) Goslings Washed Away As Ecology Students Watch in Horror. Available at: https://wp.me/PaLJ0g-1GC