Boy, is this a happier ending!!!  Thank you Mary and young Mark! My heart is 
soaring and we will look forward to visiting Rice Creek and seeing "your" 
Harlequin!

Judy Thurber
Liverpool, NY

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Rose DeNeve <rose.den...@gmail.com>
> Date: March 11, 2014 at 4:14:45 PM EDT
> To: "oneidabi...@yahoogroups.com" <oneidabi...@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Fwd: [OneidaBirds] Dead Ducks
> 
> Mary Magistro, who first discovered the Harlequin Duck in the Oswego River 
> and was also the one who found its body, has asked me to share her story  
> OneidaBirds. She will be reporting back once she has received the report on 
> the cause of the bird's death.
> 
> Rose DeNeve
> Liverpool, NY
> 
> ========================================
> 
> Rose,
> I was at Rice Creek yesterday and spoke to a Professor Schummer about this 
> issue. He said that they were going to collect the dead ducks in conjunction 
> with another group for study. He did not say what group and I didn't ask. So 
> at least someone is going to look into this.
> 
> Now for the reason I was at Rice Creek in the first place. I was giving them 
> the Harlequin Duck that died in the Oswego River. I was there with Markie 
> when it died, I stood there with him watching that rare bird wash against the 
> rocks and I had to do something I just could not stand the thought of it 
> being devoured by that river! Not to mention when your child looks at you 
> with tearful eyes and says "Mom can't we do something" that urges me to react 
> immediately! And I knew it would be important to reach it as soon as possible 
> once it had expired.
>  So I noticed a young man fishing in the river close to were the duck was 
> against a small crop of large rocks. I went over to the lock, if he got down 
> there then I could get down there. As luck would have it the gate was open to 
> the lock. I crossed the foot bridge at the lock, I walked down the stairs on 
> the west side of the lock and I followed his path down to the rivers east 
> shore (not an easy one either) , but I still could not get to the duck 
> without waders.
>  I employed the help of the young man fishing ( he had waders on) and he 
> retrieved the duck for me. I had only been dead about and hour. I called a 
> few  people I know who have the proper knowledge of what should be done with 
> the bird.
> As I live only 2 blocks from the Post Office I took it home put it in the 
> freezer and called Cornell as spoke to them. Because it was Sunday they said 
> they would be closing in a hour. so I would not have time to make it there.
> I was all set to take the bird there on Tuesday morning,as that would be the 
> earliest I could take time off work to get it there. 
> Then I remembered that SUNY Oswego had just invested 5 million dollars in 
> Rice Creek Field Station for ecological and environmental studies. I called 
> them on Monday morning, they were ecstatic over being able to not only find 
> out why the bird died but to add it to their collection. They said they would 
> do a pathology on the bird to determine why it died, and then will let me 
> know the findings. Then they will have  it professionally mounted and 
> displayed at Rice Creek for everyone to see. That is what I thought was a 
> good outcome to a bad ending.
> And seeing as this bird came to Oswego I figured it should stay in Oswego. I 
> have nothing against Cornell but if most of the birds people find get donated 
>  to Cornells wonderful lab then what chance have other schools got to add to 
> their studies and collections.
>  I hope no one takes offense to what I did but seeing as I spotted the bird 
> to begin with I felt a kind of responsibility to make sure it didn't die in 
> vain. 
> Mary Magistro,
> Oswego NY
> 
> To: gws...@gmail.com
> CC: oneidabi...@yahoogroups.com
> From: rose.den...@gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:02:35 -0400
> Subject: Re: [OneidaBirds] Dead Ducks
> 
>  
> 
> The latest I have heard is that these birds might have died of starvation. I 
> am told that the botulism organism does not do well in cold water, so there 
> is a smaller chance of that toxin being the cause in this season. It is also 
> the possible that the duck enteritis that had been around a few years back 
> has returned. Or it could be a combination of factors resulting from this 
> long, hard winter--low food intake resulting in weakness, followed by the 
> advent of disease.
> 
> Onondaga Audubon is trying to get the DEC involved in investigating the 
> phenomenon and, if they are not looking into it, then perhaps the Rice Creek 
> Field Station will take it on.
> 
> Rose DeNeve
> Liverpool, NY
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 6:39 PM, <gws...@gmail.com> wrote:
>  
> When you see suspicious dead birds, you should report it to the DEC as I did 
> with the dead loons in the fall.  The DEC wants to investigate these 
> instances.
> 
> Glorira Sage
> Syracuse
> 
> 
> 
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