Outdoors

Thace finn NS ee:
Those ‘funny mallards’ Help out your
llards at all

are no

FEMALE SHOVELER

Several people have telephoned
about a “funny-looking mallard”
which they have been seeing on
the Martindale Flats of late.

“What’s funny about it?”

“Well, you look at it, even with

your field glasses, and it’s just a
very plain female mallard but the
outline, the form is wrong some-
how. But maybe it’s just one of
those atypicals that you see once
in a while — like the offspring of a
mallard that got mixed up with
somebody else’s girlfriend, the
wrong mate. You know the funny
looking things you get when a
German shepherd dog mates with
a collie or a black lab.”

“Any idea what part of this
duck looks funny, as you put it? Is
the color off?”

“No, that’s all right. I think it’s
the head that looks peculiar when
I focus on it.”

“How about the bill?”

“Color’s about right but I’ve
never seen another mallard with
such a big bill!”

“You mean big, like a sort of
spoon?”’

“Yes, that sounds right.”

“Then it sounds as though
youve been observing a shoveler.
The females have often been taken

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for mallards, but that spoon-like or
shovel-like bill gives them away.
The bill is narrower at the base but
swells out broadly towards the tip.
It’s at least as long as the head and
you can even notice this in flight.
The duck looks front-heavy.”

“Thanks very much. I haven’t
been birding very long but it is a
lot of fun!”

“You can’t mistake the drake
shoveler. Check your field guide.
Same bill but dark greenish head
and neck, snow-white breast and
rich chestnut sides. A couple of
pairs have been swimming around

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in that small pond close to the
Toad, just east of the dairy farm
with the Jersey cattle.

“At the east end where the
north-south road cuts through. If
you happen to catch a shoveler
flying, watch for pale powder-blue
patch on the upper forewing as you
get in blue-wing and cinnamon
teals.””

Shovelers are freshwater, surface
feeding ducks and are rarely seen
in the ocean. They use that huge
beak with its serrated margins for
sieving or straining food items out
of the water.

They feed on water insects of all
kinds, small fishes, frogs, tadpoles,
fairy shrimps, leeches, snails,
aquatic worms, and small fre-
shwater clams as well as grasses,
moss, algae and the stems, blades,
shoots and leaves of plants which

grow in the water.

Shovelers, or spoonbills, nest in
slight depressions, usually in thick
grasses, weeds and small shrubs
on drier ground up from the mar-
gins of sloughs and lakes. They are
very widely distributed in North
and South America, Europe, Asia,
Afmica, Australia and several oce-
anic islands. Our birds winter in
the southern States and Mexico.

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TheReview Wednesday, February 14,1990 — Aig

B

feathered friends,
says the SPCA

Peninsula residents can help the
birds this winter, says the SPCA.

All you have to do is pack beef
Suet into cut-out milk cartons or
into holes in logs or posts.

Split coconuts in two and nail
each half to a tree or post. When
empty, these are the ideal contain-
ers for wild bird seed and sun-
flower seeds, says the SPCA.

Keep feed available every day.
Do not use any mesh, glass, or
metal containers.

“Try to keep some water free of
ice and watch out for cats,” says |
the news release.

MIDLAND CAPITAL
CORPORATION

R. O. PATTESON
of Brentwood
is the winner of
a $300 First City
Realfund voucher at the

ae, 2 Mike Grenby
ya s sidney Money Show.
b
3 ork ee Thanks to all
2G DS ove who attended
EEC Self =
NOTICE OF INTENT
APPLICATION FOR A
NEIGHBOURHOOD PUBLIC HOUSE
LIQUOR LICENCE
Alice Chiuten and Don Lew have obtained pre-clearance approval
from the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch for a Class “D” liquor
licence to operate a neighbourhood public house at:
7147 West Saanich Road
Brentwood Bay, B.C. |
Residents located within a 1/2 mile radius of this site may register a

their opinions on this proposal by voting in a door to door
referendum which will be conducted between Feb 16, 1990 and
March 17, 1990, 1990, by:

Marcon Researach Services (Victoria) Inc.

Vancouver Street

Victoria, B.C. V8V 476

Telephone: 389-1522
During the thirty day appeal period ending April 16, 1990, 1990,

direct any concerns regarding this referendum in writing to:
GENERAL MANAGER i
LIQUOR CONTROL AND LICENSING BRANCH s
Parliament Buildings

Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4

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