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Wild Ducks
Nature Bulletin No. 93 November 23, 1946
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Clayton F. Smith, President
Roberts Mann, Superintendent of Conservation
WILD DUCKS
A century ago, when the area now occupied by Chicago was a swamp
and the surrounding country was largely wet, rolling prairie; when the
great Kankakee Marsh and the bottomland lakes in the Illinois valley
were yet undrained: this region was visited each fall and spring by
millions of wild ducks. Thousands of them nested here.
Only a few nest here now, largely in the forest preserves, and the
migrating flocks are only a fraction of what they once were. But Cook
County still lies on a major migration route, one of several making up
the great Mississippi flyway. At McGinnis Slough, 21 miles southwest
of Chicago's loop, thousands of wild ducks, geese and even swans rest
and feed on the journeys between their breeding grounds in the far
north and their wintering grounds in the south. Since 1940, some 6000
ducks have been trapped, banded and released at McGinnis Slough each
fall under the supervision of the Illinois Natural History Survey.
Hunters are requested to notify the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when
they kill a duck with an aluminum band on its leg, giving the date, the
place, and the number stamped on the band. By this means, from the
banding at this and many other stations in North America, we learn
whether each species of waterfowl is increasing or decreasing, how
many are killed, where they breed, where they winter and what routes
they travel.
Banding
is begun at McGinnis Slough on August l, when the first wood
ducks and the tiny blue-winged teal arrive. It continues daily until the
final freeze-up -- usually in December. In September the mallard, the
black duck, the pintail and several other species of surface-feeding
ducks begin to appear; also the coot, which is not a duck but a
shorebird. By November the wood ducks, teal and coots have gone and
the main flight of pintails, black ducks and mallards come through,
accompanied by diving ducks such as the ringneck and the scaup.
When the thick ice comes, the slough is left silent and empty except for
the muskrat houses that dot the shoreline, patrolled by the marauding
mink.
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Update: June 2012
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