Wood Duck: A Celebrity Interview
By Alane K. Dashner of Lodi, CA
[Culture Vulture Magazine]
Oh my goodness, you’re even more handsome in real life! Wood you have time for an interview, Mr. Wood Duck?
[Wood Duck]
Please, call me WD. Yes, I’m between shootings.
[CV Mag]
Do you and your family live here in the California Delta, WD?
[Wood Duck]
Yes, and I have my people build nesting boxes in trees all around North America so that I can enjoy life above the common paddlers.
[CV Mag]
Is it true that you’re a duck who can perch on branches? Do you do your own stunts?
[Wood Duck]
Quite so! I’d show you, but my agent won’t allow. We Wood Ducks are in the biz since hatching – our duckling debut is a free-fall from the nest as high as fifty feet up – down-down-down, plop, into the water… if we’re lucky.
[CV Mag]
WD, I have to ask: Do you wear red contact lenses? Is your black-and-white makeup tattooed? Is that gorgeous iridescent crest a wig?
[Wood Duck]
Maybe you have to ask, but I don’t have to answer. How rude!
All year around in the Delta. Often called the most beautiful of all waterfowl, the colorful, crested male Wood Duck is a joy to behold. The female is a duller brown but similarly shaped. Wood Ducks are unusual in that their webbed feet have such strong claws that the Wood Ducks can grip branches and tree bark. They nest in trees and nesting boxes. Although juvenile Wood Ducks eat insects and other invertebrates, they then mature into a vegetarian diet of marsh plants, acorns, and other seeds.