Waterfowl

Craig R. Unruh, an advertising executive and avid waterfowl hunter, died Sept. 14 of colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 61. Mr. Unruh was born in Baltimore and raised on Tunbridge Road in Homeland. He was a 1969 graduate of St. Paul's School, where he had been an outstanding midfielder on the lacrosse team and a key player in the 1969 state championship game. As a student at the University of Maryland, he was a starting midfielder his freshman year, and after earning a bachelor's degree in 1973, continued playing the sport for the University, Chesapeake and Carling lacrosse clubs.

Anyone who's visited a duck pond, bag of bread in hand, knows: If you feed them, they will come. But in the waterfront city of Havre de Grace, that seemingly harmless ritual soon could be illegal - and punishable by a $100 fine. A botulism outbreak killed about 150 birds along the waterfront last month - one of worst cases ever in Maryland, which nature experts say was caused by people feeding the hungry animals. The City Council introduced an ordinance banning the practice Sept. 19, in the face stiff resistance from visitors to the city's waterfront promenade, who tore down signs and threw bread in the face of city employees asking them to stop.

They may add an idyllic note to Columbia's scenic lakes, but the area's wild ducks, geese and swans leave something far less appealing behind -- the droppings that foul paths and walkways.And officials say that in places like Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia's Town Center, human visitors aren't helping by feeding the waterfowl. One recent afternoon, people could be seen tossing chunks of bread and other food into the water -- though nearby signs posted by the Columbia Association clearly state: "Please, don't feed the waterfowl."

Waterfowl decoys, long ago used by Native Americans who made them of reeds to lure ducks and geese into their nets, now trap much richer fare: Decoys attract about $12 million from collectors at auctions each year. The leading auction house for decoys, Guyette & Schmidt Inc., is moving its headquarters to St. Michaels on Maryland's Eastern Shore from Farmington, Maine, this month. The owners of the auction company, which sells $10 million worth of the decoys a year, said they were drawn by a warmer climate and lower taxes, but also the state's premier role in the craft.

On a typical evening you can find Dick Robinson in his home workshoptransforming a hunk of white pine or slab of old cedar into an ornate, carved wood duck.Alongside him you're sure to find his wife, Linda, carving small shore birds and delicate-looking swans.Married 21 years, the Bel Air couple have come to share a common interest in their pursuit of decoy carving.Dick, 47, has been carving what are known as workable decoys -- used for hunting -- and decorative models for almost 11 years.

EASTON -- It's almost time for the granddaddy of East Coast waterfowl art shows, and Susie Carpenter, Nancy Thomas and dozens of others are feverishly whipping out wreaths, floral centerpieces and decorative sprigs of all kinds.Starting today, as it has on the second weekend of November for nearly three decades, the town of Easton will give itself over to what locals refer to simply as "waterfowl."That would be everything from waterfowl carvers, waterfowl painters and waterfowl sculptors to waterfowl callers and waterfowl retrievers.

Large numbers of live decoys are being used on private and state lands in Maryland, in violation of federal regulations, the Department of Natural Resources announced yesterday.Live decoys are free-flying, captive-reared waterfowl that are released to attract wild birds. "Some birds, because of their rearing conditions, are reluctant to leave an area once they settle. In doing so, they attract other live waterfowl, making them easy targets for hunters," said DNR secretary Torrey C. Brown.

If you take a morning stroll around Wilde Lake, chances are you'll spot Walter Burlingham performing his civic duty -- checking on a small bevy of swans.That may seem an offbeat enterprise, but it fits right in with his work as chairman of the Columbia Waterfowl Committee, now in its second year of conservation and educational efforts for waterfowl and other wildlife that make Columbia's lakes their home.Mr. Burlingham's morning ritual is part of an effort by the waterfowl committee and the Swan Research Program in Airlie, Va., which hold permits for the birds, to ensure that the swans on Wilde Lake are protected.

HAGERSTOWN -- Life is quite daffy in parts of Hagerstown these days.Some people are calling themselves (and maybe others) "quacks." Secretaries joke about city officials "ducking" out of the office when ruffled constituents call. And schoolchildren are hollering, er, "fowl," sending angry letters and petitions to the City Council.This quackmire (sorry) stems from efforts to control the burgeoning population of mallards and other ducks, as well as Canada and domesticated geese at two man-made lakes at Hagerstown's picturesque and popular City Park.

With charging tanks and booming artillery, you would think that ducks would want a quieter place to park their tails than Aberdeen Proving Ground.But the U.S. Army believes otherwise, and that's why it has constructed three ponds for ducks at the proving ground.The ponds are a part of a new international initiative to increase the population of the fine, feathered friends at the proving ground.The program, called the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, combines private and public sectors of the United States, Canada and Mexico to protect the continent's duck population.