MARYSTOWN, N.L. — Loretta Strang and Dianne Leece are animal lovers.
So, the sight of “squished” waterfowl on Greenwood Street in the Creston South area of Marystown has been disturbing to say the least, the sisters say.
“I’m after seeing so many dead ducks on the road, it’s unbelievable — unbelievable,” Strang told SaltWire Network over the phone on Tuesday.
“There’s children in this area, too. Slow down people. It’s a small road. There’s no need to go 60, 70 kilometres (an hour) up this little road.”
Both Strang, who lives on Greenwood Street, and Leece, who resides in the nearby town of Lewin’s Cove, say the birds deserve a little more respect.
“They’re just trying to survive like we are,” Strang said.
In a phone interview on Monday, Leece claimed to recently have witnessed a man swinging a shovel at the ducks in a very aggressive manner.
“As an animal lover, I don’t want to see that,” she said.
“That saying resonates with me: In a world where you can be anything, be kind, right?”
Duck relocation
Marystown council has been dealing with the duck situation in the Creston South neighbourhood for some time, according to minutes from recent meetings.
During her protection to persons and property committee report for the council meeting on Jan. 19, Coun. Nora Tremblett indicated work had started to relocate ducks from the area of Greenwood Street and Canning Street, which she estimated numbered around 200-250.
In both her committee reports for Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, Tremblett said residents had been asked to stop feeding the animals as work continued to relocate the birds to another area.
She again mentioned the topic during the Feb. 16 meeting, explaining the town was doing its best to relocate the ducks, noting it has been a time-consuming activity given the waterfowl were still being fed and again asking for cooperation.
“The people in that area are having a real difficulty with it,” Tremblett said during the livestreamed Feb. 16 meeting.
“I mean you can only imagine when you got maybe 150, 200 ducks on your doorstep, it’s not a pleasant sight.”
Bird feeders
Strang and Leece see it as almost as a duty to feed the ducks, particularly now that there is snow and ice everywhere and the birds’ ability to forage naturally is significantly reduced, they say.
The sisters suggest the usual number of ducks in the area on any given day is 40-80.
“My first experience, it was like, woah, it was like bizarre how many ducks I had standing on my sandals,” Leece said.
“It was crazy, but they were hungry. They’ve been very domesticated.”
Leece says she now avoids feeding the birds in Creston South because she doesn’t like seeing them dead on the road, instead supplying the waterfowl in Salt Pond, closer to her home, with bird seed.
Strang said she’s had a few knocks on her door from Marystown’s animal control officer, who is in charge of relocating the ducks, and was once stopped driving down the street by the employee.
One day while she was feeding the ducks, a man approached her and requested that she stop doing so.
“I looked at him like he had 10 heads,” she said.
Strang, who said she plans to continue feeding the ducks, said the birds are where they are through no fault of their own.
The pair also questioned relocating the animals to another area with which they are unfamiliar during the wintertime.
Drawing on her experiences living in other areas, Leece, who is from the Burin Peninsula and returned to the region last summer, summed up wildlife living close to urban areas as not for everyone.
“Some people like it, and some people don’t, I guess, right?"