>I imagine in the
>future there will be a duck dichotomy--wild ducks that live away from the
>cities and city ducks that live in them. Sigh....

And those wild ducks that come to winter. Here in Portland we have
a city park known as Crystal Springs where one can find a bunch of
wild ducks in winter - cans, hooded mergs, ruddies, bufflehead,
and many, many lesser scaup, and last year two pintails (a pair).

A duck trichotomy?

The bufflehead, scaup are always most eager to be fed. The pair
of pintail were last winter as well (they were still there in spring,
actually, but I didn't go during summer as there's now an admission
charge to pay for upkeep on the Rhodie Gardens which are the main
attraction for the avian challenged). And one female canvasback
last year learned to enjoy being fed by humans, though warily.

I must admit, better than most places for a duck in hunting season!

They're so conditioned that when I want to photograph scaup for grins
I just toss gravel from the paths into the water and close focus
becomes a problem...no, I'm not a duck-feeding kind of guy.

I wish the hooded mergs would get conditioned, maybe I should start
visiting with a bag a feeder goldfish from my local petshop...

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>