2 Abandoned Ducks Rescued From Center Moriches Pond

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Two abandoned, domesticated ducks were rescued from a pond in Center Moriches last weekend.

According to John Di Leonardo, president of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature, his organization first heard about the ducks — named Doug and Lisa, after two volunteers who helped save them — after someone posted photos of them in a Facebook group, explaining that the male was aggressively attempting to mate with the wild female ducks.

Given his size, that would have been especially dangerous for the wild ducks, Di Leonardo explained, adding that domesticated ducks are much larger than their wild counterparts.

"If he was able to mate with them, their offspring also would likely have been unable to fly and lacked many of the natural instincts necessary for wild living," he said. In addition, Di Leonardo said, the duck's parasites could also easily have been transmitted to them.

Shortly after he ascertained the ducks' location, he got a call from Southold resident Rachel Neville, who was visiting the pond and also concerned for their welfare, he said.

Di Leonardo asked Neville to feed them and try to earn their trust. He told her that if she could catch them he would take them and find them a home. She returned over the next few days to try to catch them but was unsuccessful. Di Leonardo and members of his group headed out over the weekend to help, inviting Jaeger’s Run Animal Rescue members to join them on the mission.

The group herded the ducks onto land with kayaks and caught them with pole nets, Di Leonardo said.

The ducks are approximately a year old and were very thin when rescued, but they are eating and drinking well and putting on weight, Di Leonardo said. Due to poultry lice, they are being quarantined at Di Leonardo's home in Malverne with other ducks being treated for various ailments.

In the coming days, the ducks are expected to go to their forever home with North Fork Country Kids: Rescue and Preservation Through Pedagogy in Aquebogue, where they will be fed, given regular veterinary care, sleep in a predator and climate-proof coop at night, and have other domestic ducks to swim with and socialize with, Di Leonardo said.

In addition to the ducks he is caring for at home, LION, Di Leonardo said, has more than a dozen ducks in foster care at foster homes in Suffolk County; all are up for adoption in bonded male/female groups.

Many ducks have been abandoned, Di Leonardo said, because during the pandemic, some people did home-hatching projects or bought ducklings to keep kids busy during quarantine. "And then, they were looking to get rid of them when they went back to work or their kids went back to school — so we've been rescuing so many abandoned domestics," he said. "People need to understand domestic ducks are not school science experiments, Easter props or objects to be discarded like trash."

He added: "Domestic ducks are as far removed from their wild counterparts as our companion cats are from tigers. Yet every year, many of these birds are abandoned at ponds or parks by people who bought ducklings to place in Easter baskets or as science experiments. They can’t fly or adequately forage for food, and they’re defenseless against predators, wild waterfowl that fight over territory, and people who view them as nuisances."