Pilling's Pond is a privately owned urban waterfowl reserve and breeding ground in the North Seattle neighborhood of Licton Springs, Seattle, Washington. It was created by lifetime resident Charles A. Pilling and has been a bird breeding site and a roadside attraction since the 1920s.
In the 1880s, a member of the Denny family built a house on North 90th Street and Densmore Avenue North in Seattle. James and Marietta Pilling purchased the property in 1909, and converted it to a dairy farm. [1] In 1924, their twelve-year-old son Charles A. Pilling (October 6, 1911 – October 24, 2001) dug a small pond to care for three injured mallard ducks he had been given. [2] This began Pilling's lifelong interest in breeding waterfowl. Over the years, the size of the pond was expanded to 100 by 50 feet (30 m × 15 m) on the half-acre lot. It was fed fresh water by diverting Licton Springs. It is bordered by bamboo stands, and yet with a viewing area on North 90th Street, it still remains part of Seattle's urban landscape. In the 1950s Pilling created a manually operated flood control system that was still in use in 2011. [3]
Pilling gained international fame when in 1955 the International Wild Waterfowl Association (IWWA) [4] recognized him as the first to breed the hooded merganser in captivity. He received the female merganser as an injured duck, nursed her to health and then found a male partner for her. This was followed by similar awards in 1964 for the bufflehead and in 1977 for being first to breed the harlequin duck. [3] He received the Grand Master Breeder Award from the American Game Bird Breeders Cooperative Federation. [5] Charles Pilling's most prestigious award was induction into the IWWA's Hall of Fame. "In 1990, he was the fourth person ever to be inducted into IWWA's Waterfowl Breeders Hall of Fame, an award that he and his wife, June, traveled to Nova Scotia to accept." [3] All of these achievements occurred while managing the activity on Pilling's Pond.
As Pilling became well known in the bird breeding community, he was sought out as a mentor. In 1972, Paul Dye moved to Seattle for the purpose of learning the art and craft of bird breeding from the master. Pilling mentored Dye, and Dye went on to establish his own duck reserve near Lake Stevens, Washington, known as Northwest Waterfowl Farm. [6]
In May 2001, Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN) produced a documentary video about Pilling's Pond. It shows green-winged teals, blue-winged teals, wood ducks, mandarins, hooded mergansers, red heads, goldeneye, buffleheads, ring-necks, and northern shovelers, as well as some exotic Siberian geese, black-necked swans and Australian black swans. The pond has been home to over 100 waterfowl in its peak Autumn season. Interviews with Pilling, biologists Peter Lortz and Ellie Cauldwell, and other local pond experts, are also presented in the documentary. [7]
In October 2001, Chuck Pilling died at 90 years of age. [8] In 2005, David Kunkle, a long-time neighbor, purchased the property with the intention of preserving the pond's legacy. Since then, family members and neighbors, organized under the non-profit corporation, Pilling's Pond Preservation Society, have maintained the pond and have continued to preserve it as an educational resource, with the support of Puget Consumers Coop, who for over a decade has donated lettuce trimmings as a healthy staple diet for the birds. [9]
Pilling's Pond as a non-commercial enterprise continues as a historical and educational resource for the Licton Springs neighborhood.
WWT Arundel is one of ten wildfowl and wetland nature reserves managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, a nature conservation charity in the United Kingdom. The 60 acres (24 ha) reserve is situated at the foot of the Offham Hangar, a part of the Arun valley in Arundel, West Sussex, England.
The sea ducks (Mergini) are a tribe of the duck subfamily of birds, the Anatinae. The taxonomy of this group is incomplete. Some authorities separate the group as a subfamily, while others remove some genera. Most species within the group spend their winters near coastal waters. Many species have developed specialized salt glands to allow them to tolerate salt water, but these are poorly developed in juveniles. Some of the species prefer riverine habitats. All but two of the 22 species in this group live in far northern latitudes.
The ring-necked duck is a diving duck from North America commonly found in freshwater ponds and lakes. The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia, an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin collaris, "of the neck" from collum, "neck".
The hooded merganser is a species of fish-eating duck in the subfamily Anatinae. It is the only extant species in the genus Lophodytes. The genus name derives from the Greek language: lophos meaning 'crest', and dutes meaning 'diver'. The bird is striking in appearance; both sexes have crests that they can raise or lower, and the breeding plumage of the male is handsomely patterned and coloured. The hooded merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as a typical merganser.
The Aylesbury duck is a breed of domesticated duck, bred mainly for its meat and appearance. It is a large duck with pure white plumage, a pink bill, orange legs and feet, an unusually large keel, and a horizontal stance with its body parallel to the ground. The precise origins of the breed are unclear, but raising white ducks became popular in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, in the 18th century owing to the demand for white feathers as a filler for quilts. Over the 19th century selective breeding for size, shape and colour led to the Aylesbury duck.
Green Lake is a freshwater lake in north central Seattle, Washington, within Green Lake Park. The park is surrounded by the Green Lake neighborhood to the north and east, the Wallingford neighborhood to the south, the Phinney Ridge neighborhood to the west, and Woodland Park to the southwest. It is a glacial lake, its basin having been dug 50,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington, Union, Bitter and Haller Lakes.
The mottled duck or mottled mallard is a medium-sized species of dabbling duck. It is intermediate in appearance between the female mallard and the American black duck. It is closely related to those species, and is sometimes erroneously considered a subspecies of the former.
Meller's duck is a species of the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is endemic to eastern Madagascar. Although a population was established on Mauritius in the mid-18th century, this is on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss and competition by feral domestic ducks. The species name of this species is after the botanist Charles James Meller, and its generic name is from the Latin for "duck".
Licton Springs or North College Park is a neighborhood in the informal Northgate district of North Seattle. It is bounded by Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which is Maple Leaf neighborhood and the Northgate Mall; Aurora Avenue N to the west, beyond which is Greenwood; N 85th Street to the south, beyond which is Green Lake, and N Northgate Way to the north, beyond which is Haller Lake.
Indian Runners are a breed of Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, the domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddling, they run. The females usually lay about 300 to 350 eggs a year or more, depending whether they are from exhibition or utility strains. They were bred on the Indonesian islands of Lombok, Java and Bali where they were 'walked' to market and sold as egg-layers or for meat. These ducks do not fly and only rarely form nests and incubate their own eggs. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs wherever they happen to be. Duck-breeders need to house their birds overnight or be vigilant in picking up the eggs to prevent them from being taken by other animals.
The Erie National Wildlife Refuge is an 8,777-acre (3,552 ha) National Wildlife Refuge located in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Named after the Erie tribe, it was established to provide waterfowl and other migratory birds with nesting, feeding, brooding, and resting habitat.
A duck pond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for waterfowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink.
The Call is a historic breed of small domestic duck. It is believed to have originated in the Netherlands, where the earliest descriptions and depictions of it date from the seventeenth century. It is similar in appearance to some other breeds of duck, but is much smaller, with a round head and very short bill. Ducks, but not drakes, are very loquacious and noisy, with a piercing high-pitched call which be heard from far away.
The Orpington or Buff Orpington Duck is a breed of domestic duck. It is a dual-purpose breed used for meat and egg production. It is capable of laying up to 220 eggs a year. Originally created by William Cook of Orpington, Kent, England, from the selection of mis-marked Blue Orpington Ducks; Cook was also the developer of the Orpington chicken. The breeds used in the development of the breed included Cayuga, Indian Runner, commercial Aylesbury and Rouen. It is proposed that Cook's intentions for the breed were to capitalize on the growing demand for the buff colour pattern. The Buff Orpington Duck was introduced to the public at the Dairy Show, the Agricultural Hall (q.v.), Islington, London in October 1897. It is considered a threatened breed by the ALBC. This breed was admitted to the British Poultry Standard in 1910 and the American Poultry Associations Standard of Perfection as the 'Buff Duck' in the Medium class in 1914. The Orpington duck is available in three colour varieties: Buff, Blond and Brown. The Buff Orpington is an unstable colour due to a blue dilution gene which means that from the offspring, all three colour variations will appear.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park is a park located along the Delaware River in the southernmost point of South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, comprising some 348 acres (1.41 km2) which includes a 146-acre (0.59 km2) golf course, about 125 acres (0.51 km2) of buildings, roadways, pathways for walking, landscaped architecture, and a variety of picnic and recreation areas placed within about 77 acres (310,000 m2) of natural lands including ponds and lagoons.
Becharof National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the Aleutian Range of the Alaska Peninsula of southwestern Alaska. It is adjacent to Katmai National Park and Preserve. This national wildlife refuge, which covers an area of 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km2), was established in 1980 to conserve major brown bears, salmon, migratory birds, caribou, marine birds, and mammals and to comply with treaty obligations. It lies primarily in the east-central part of Lake and Peninsula Borough, but extends eastward into the mainland portion of Kodiak Island Borough. The refuge is administered from offices in King Salmon.
Banner Marsh State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park covering 4,363 acres (1,766 ha) in Fulton County, Illinois, United States.
The Sea Duck Joint Venture (SDJV) is a conservation partnership established in 1998 whose mission is "promoting the conservation of North America’s Sea Ducks". The partners are the Canadian Wildlife Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Geological Survey, Ducks Unlimited, Bird Studies Canada, the Pacific Flyway Council, and the council for U.S. Flyways. It is one of three species joint ventures operating within the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
Pilling is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England. It can also refer to:
Swanquarter Wilderness was designated in 1976, and it covers 8,785 acres (36 km2) in the Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina.