To feed, or not to feed (The Ducks)

A Hamlin resident addressed Village of Brockport officials at the regular October 6 board meeting and "professed her guilt" at feeding the ducks at Brockport's Corbett Pond - "The Duck Pond."

Fran Hulsicer admitted that she does feed the ducks but also said she contacted Department of Environmental Conservation officials and asked what the ducks could be fed that would offer them a healthy diet. "There were a lot of sick and dying birds and I just wanted to help them," she said. "I found out what to feed them to make them healthy again."

Hulsicer said that while she doesn't trespass on people's property she does go around and pick up the dead ducks and she picks up the garbage that litters the park. "I am also guilty of putting corn on the canal bed to lure out the sick birds so we can capture them and take them to the veterinarian's to be rehabilitated."

The problem, she said, is not so much in asking the public not to feed the ducks as it is with the tame ducks that have mated with the wild birds that congregate there. "If the tame ducks don't get fed they will die, they won't migrate with the wild ones this winter," she said. "I'm begging the board to do what they can to help these birds."

Mayor Josephine Matella said it's a difficult balance the board is trying to strike regarding to the bird population. "We will continue to look into the situation and do what we can to help."

While ducks and geese are wild animals that can survive with little or no help from humans, the tame birds do become dependent on the handouts and will be hard pressed to survive a winter when food is not plentiful, Hulsicer said.

The issue of the duck population was raised at a September 2 board meeting when a resident who lived by the pond asked the board to erect signs that asked people not to feed the ducks. The resident, Marian Miller, said she has ducks sleeping, eating and making messes in her yard all the time. She also cited health concerns with regards to the birds' excrement as well as the amount of people who wander in and out of her yard as they follow the birds around.

A plea was made to any individuals who own a pond and would be willing to take in a few of the tame birds to cut down on the Brockport pond population.