Photos by Bill Steinkamp
Gadwalls are medium-sized ducks that have seen a resurgence in their numbers in recent years, thanks in part to the Conservation Reserve Program and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s North American Waterfowl Management Plan, All About Birds notes.
Their diet consists mainly of aquatic vegetation, including pondweed, wigeon grass and water milfoil (Gadwalls also eat aquatic invertebrates).
This female Gadwall was found in Santa Monica, Calif. with multiple lacerations — likely from a predator — and was transported to our Los Angeles center on July 24 from California Wildlife Center (CWC). Surgery was required to close up remaining lacerations, which are now healing.
At last count, here’s the current breakdown of birds in our care at the Los Angeles center:
72 Western Gulls
32 Brown Pelicans
22 Black-crowned Night Herons
20 Mallard Ducks
6 Snowy Egrets
3 Brandt’s Cormorants
1 Heermann’s Gull
1 Great Blue Heron
1 Green Heron
1 Pigeon Guillemot
1 Gadwall
