The Cast of Characters

Central Park (CP) is home to several types of waterfowl and we hope to post pictures of as many as we can. Though there are hundreds of birds that make CP their home, there are several "regulars" that have become some of our favorite characters. My daughter and I have given some of them names and have also grown quite attached to them. Here are a few.

Laurel

This little gal is named "Laurel". Laurel is a small sized khaki campbell duck with a beautiful brown and white plumage making her a really cute little duck. When she was a duckling, she had a sidekick named "Hardy" (pictured to the right). Hardy has since left the pond, but Laurel has hung around to every one's delight. You can't miss her.

When you approach her pond, she lets out a number of loud quacks as she makes her way towards you in anticipation that you may have some duck feed or other goodies.

Aflacs

There are several white campbell ducks living at Central Park. Since they look like the duck in the Aflac Insurance commercials, that is what we call them. In the winter time, they live together in one large group of about nine ducks. However, in the Spring time the males become very competitive and the less dominate males are forced to become loners.

Fonzy

Fonzy is a "khaki campbell". We named him Fonzy because you can always find him with several female ducks. He is also a main target of attack by the male "Aflacs". They won't let him stay within 25 feet of their group. In fact, Laurel has a lot of white feathers and otherwise suspiciously looks a lot like this guy.

Scovies

Central Park has a lot of muscovy ducks. Scovies, despite their menacing appearance and even though females will tenaciously protect their young, are very gentle animals. Scovies can't quack. The females make soft "chirping" noises while the males make a sound that essentially is just the sound of air being forced from their throats. Muscovies are the only domestic ducks that are not derived from mallard stock. They prefer to walk (or waddle) rather than swim or fly. In fact, while several of the females and young males in CP can be seen in flight, some of the larger males refuse to fly at all since they are so large.

These are five baby scovies from the Spring of 2006.

One of the ducklings above is also one of our favorite CP scovies named "Side Panels". He is pictured here all grown up. He got his name due to a bad case of what is apparently "angel wing".

There are several other distinctive scovies that we will be blogging about. General Grievous, Ann Bonnie, Caleco Jack, and "the Greivious Boys" are just a few.

Lots of wild ducks and geese make their home in Central Park, too.

You can also find several Blue Herons, like the big fellow below, on the lookout for a good fishing hole.