Don’t Feed the Ducks?
I’ve seen the signs many times; so have you. They are the signs near lakes and ponds in local parks compelling us not to feed the ducks and geese. Typically, the signs will be simple and to the point – “Don’t Feed the Ducks.” However, I recently saw one that went well beyond the typical and which would win a gold star from me. The City of Brookhaven, Georgia, just outside Atlanta, does a unique job of telling us not to feed the waterfowl. The sign straddling the bank of the small lake in Murphey Candler Park reads:
Please… don’t feed waterfowl.
REGULAR FEEDING CAN CAUSE:
Poor Nutrition
Spread of disease
Unnatural behavior
Pollution
Overcrowding
Delayed Migration
Many people enjoy feeding waterfowl,
but the effects of this seemingly generous act can be harmful.
If you care about waterfowl, please stop feeding
them…allow them to return to their natural habits.
This city goes well beyond “Don’t feed the ducks.” They provide a Why…and they do it gently. While discouraging the common practice of feeding the birds, the Parks & Recreation department acknowledges how our motives may be pure. Notice how they refer to this common practice of feeding the ducks as a generous act. I grew up with this kind of generosity as our family would often go to a park and feed the ducks, typically with a loaf of white Sunbeam bread.
Whether or not our motives were pure, I certainly considered our actions to be favorable to the ducks and geese. Yet, to believe we were helping the ducks, or preventing geese from dying of starvation, was misguided. As the city sign tells us, while we may think we are helping the birds, we may be harming them. The sugar, salt, and preservatives found in bread can be harmful, particularly in large amounts. It can create vitamin deficiencies and harm the birds’ immune systems, making them susceptible to disease. Too much bread can also block their digestive tracts.
There is a lesson here that spills over into other areas of life.
There is a lesson on love.
When it comes to love, there is a good, better, and best. Best is informed. Best is educated. Best looks at the long-term consequence. Best is wise.
I think of Nandy. Nandy loved me, just as he loved all his grandchildren. He died before I reached kindergarten; therefore, my memories of him are few. There is, however, one prominent memory of Nandy. It is of him greeting us at the door to their home. Bending his tall frame down toward us, he presented us with a glass bowl full of candy. I loved going to Nandy’s because I knew he would be at the door with that bowl full of candy. I liked candy. Sharing sweets such as candy, cakes, cookies, ice cream, and pies was a familiar form of expressing love in our family. For decades, I carried on that tradition. Not today. I rarely gift sweets because my love is more informed. It’s out of love, a love that reveals a higher level of discernment, that I refrain from gifting sugar-ladened delicacies that can lead to tooth decay, diabetes, weight gain, cancer, and fatigue. I now know too much about the negative effects of too much sugar.
I spoke recently with someone who has worked with refugees in North Africa. She spoke about how our helping can sometimes hurt. We can be sincere, have pure motives, be zealous, and eager to help, but if our help is not educated, informed, and wise we may be hurting the very ones we aim to love and help.
Just as the park-goers on the banks of a local park need to think more intelligently about how to interact with the ducks, we must examine our acts of love to see how we can better engage in care with more intelligence, wisdom, and discernment. We can’t afford to let this truth be water off a duck’s back.
Jack Bruce is the founder of WellBirds, an organization dedicated to sharing how birds, birding, and nature contribute to our wellbeing.You are invited to subscribe to the WellBirds blog and follow WellBirds on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.