| Next time you're at Auditorium Shores, look for Marvin and his clan. While there are several normal geese on Town Lake, Marvin is highly unusual in that he is a Chinese Domestic Goose. Maybe this is why Marvin thinks he's a duck. He leads a clan of eight ducks, and I've caught him more than once trying to mate with a white domestic duck -- which annoys her, by the way. |  White domestic duck, Serah, Sterling, and Marvin Marvin is moody and at times fiesty. Don't be offended. He's either hungry (so feed him already) or just showing off his macho build (so cower already!). He's really a very nice duckie. |
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 Feeding Marvin and his clan at Hollow Sanctuary |
Marvin's clan consists of six white domestic ducks (three males, three females) and Sterling and Serah (blond ducks of a mysterious species). |  Marvin, the Chinese Domestic Goose Note the black beak and long neck. |
 Sterling and Serah are both males: Sterling has a distinctive white mane and white collar; Serah doesn't. Both are magnificently beautiful. Sterling and Serah act as the security guards of the clan. |
Also at Auditorium Shores, you will find a small clan of mallards; TinkerToy, a lone very small male mallard who resembles (surprise!) a Tinker Toy; Genevieve, a lone beautiful Muscovy with one black spot on her chest; Samuel, a lone Muscovy, greyish with black spots on his chest; and Wilbur and Wilma, a white domestic duck/mallard couple! |  The small cartoon-like ducks at Auditorium Shores are lesser scaups. In March, they leave our fair town and fly north. The males are black and white; the females, brown. They are good underwater swimmers/divers. Before taking off to far away lands, they need to carbo-load, so feed them generously! |
Duck Noises: Marvin wins the award for the loudest. Like a proper goose should, Marvin goes HONK HONK HONK. He honks when he wants to be fed and while he's eating -- The "Don't talk with your mouth full" rule doesn't apply here. You'll hear Marvin before you see him; he's not the type to sneak up on you! Mallards hang out in circles and have animated conversations with each other. They have a sweet, soft voice, and talk excitedly. Muscovies have such beautiful soft voices that you have to be close to hear them. Genevieve and Samuel make a tiny, beautiful noise. The White Domestic Ducks go Quack Quack Quack. They really do. Coots have several distinctive sounds, depending on what they're talking about. You'll hear them from far away. I've never heard the lesser scaups talk, but I've read that they do. The Town Lake swans are mute, but hiss when disturbed. FEEDING the DUCKS: Many of the ducks of Town Lake have been abandoned by humans. The ducks of Town Lake are dependent upon humans for food! Please feed the ducks, especially when the weather is bad. (Hint: Don't bring your dog when you're feeding the ducks.) I usually bring a bag of bird seed ($.99 for 5 pounds at HEB) and a large bag of flour tortillas. All except the grackles love the seed. And all, including the squirrels, like flour tortillas. Be gentle with them, talk to them, make some new friends! MORE: Duck News Marvin's Pad Town Lake Secrets Baton Rouge Ducks |
Birds
on Town Lake: The black birds in the water (white beak, blue three-toed footsies) are American coots. There are also brown coots on Town Lake. The large black birds with lonnggg necks that swim almost completely submerged and dive for fish are cormerants. The magnificent 3-foot tall bird that you'll see walking or wading, looking for a fish filet burger, is the Great Blue Heron. His name is Grant, and he's a long time Austin resident. Chester is a lesser green heron, whom you can find fishing at dawn or dusk at Town Lake or the pond. The birds who try to steal food while you're feeding the ducks are grackles. Males are beautiful black iridescent guys; females are smaller and brown. They make widely varied sounds and call out when they're hungry. Don't forget to feed them. The birds that look like pigeons are pigeons, immigrants from Europe. Their politically correct name is "rock doves." Pigeons have a soft 'hoo.' The smaller ones are mourning doves and white winged doves. They 'mourn'. The black speckled birds with orange beaks are starlings. The little tiny itty bitty cutie patutie birds are sparrows. The robins are robins, and the bluejays and cardinals are bluejays and cardinals respectively. There are more birds on Town Lake than these. Duh.
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 the Wood Duck in all his glory! Ducks of Lou Neff Point: At Lou Neff Point, you will find normal
geese (no offense to Marvin). They are brown or white with orange beaks.
In addition, you'll find a clan of four Muscovies (three colored and one white), and a
clan of five talkative ducks: one male Mallard, two blue Mallards, one grey Mallard, one
white domestic. On a good day, you'll see some wood ducks passing by. Of
course, you'll see coots, pigeons, grackles, and the occasional squirrel waiting patiently
for you to feed him because he's "simply irresistible." Look across the
lake and you'll see cormerants and occasionally herons. |
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All Marvin photos copyright ©1999-2007 by Devorah |
