Wildfowl Awareness
5 Jun 2018
What should you be feeding wildfowl and why is bread so bad for them?
In this blog I will talk about why we must never feed bread to ducks and other matters concerning wildfowl.
We have held a series of events to highlight appropriate wildfowl feeding and other protection matters, which we will continue to do throughout the summer. Wildfowl are particularly vulnerable at this time of year as they are what's known as 'ground nesting birds', not surprisingly that means that they nest on the ground. For this reason we must be incredibly vigilent when walking close to where they may be nesting, and it is of great importance that dogs be kept on leads anywhere near the Haddo lake, but also beside the children's playpark as that is another area favoured by the ducks. Dogs don't know they are destroying a nest, they just see ball like objects and think they look great fun, which is why it is your job as a dog handler to keep dogs under very close control, preferably on a lead.
Another threat to birds is feeding them bread. Birds will eat bread like a child will eat chocolate, but bread has no nutritional value for them. Furthermore, bread bloats in their tummies and makes them feel very full, so not only are they not getting any nutrition from bread but they then don't eat the food that's good for them. The bread also causes algae to grow far more quickly in the lake, it actually changes the water's quality, so the ducks then don't have the natural food sources they rely on and the lake is starved of oxygen. So you can see that bread is the enemy of wildfowl and of the lake's ecosystem.
If you would like to take food from home to feed the waterfowl then you can take oats, peas (frozen but defrosted), sweetcorn, rice (raw or cooked) or halved grapes. Seed is available to buy at both the National Trust for Scotland shop and Mrs Smith's tearoom. Local shops like Norvite sell huge bags of seed and cracked oats at a very cheap price, so if you are a regular bird feeder you may find it most economical to buy in bulk.
As a footnote, we love people coming to Haddo and enjoying the birds, it's sometimes a child's first glimpse of nature. Please do not make your enjoyment or feelings of tradition be of more importance than the health and wellbeing of our widfowl.
Suzanna Atkinson (visitor services officer at Haddo)
