While harvesting 350 acres of wheat, farmer Deke Dormer collected 819 eggs in his field. The eggs were then placed in egg cartons, taken to incubators for hatching, and will be returned to wetlands when the ducklings are old enough to survive on their own.
It is part of an egg-salvage program that has saved 50,000 eggs in the past 10 years from mallard ducks that have nested on active farms. The photo gallery shows how the program works in the field — the video below details it from start to finish, and includes the release of one of the crops of this year’s hatch.
“We know it’s best for ducks to raise their own ducklings,” said Holly Heyser of the California Waterfowl Association, which sponsors the program. “But this is the best thing we can do to give ducklings in active farm fields a second chance to live.”
Because of drought, the local mallard breeding population this year is the lowest on record, down 27 percent compared to last year, and half of the long-term average. Most mallards in California are born and raised in the Sacramento Valley and Klamath Basin. The drought means fewer wetlands and far less breeding opportunities than past years.
Mallards need dry habitat with dense cover for their nests, and water nearby where they can take their hatchlings. Fields of wheat, rye, barley and hay lined by irrigation ditches can thus look perfect. But at harvest time, the combines can crush nests and eggs. At the minimum, with the cover gone, the nests are left exposed to predators.
“With what you’re giving back to nature, it’s worth the money,” Dormer said. “I’m continuing a tradition that many before me have done.” He said that his grandfather also rescued eggs.
