The cruise itself was fabulous. The captain and crew were very knowledgeable about the canyon, the history of the area, the cacti, and the wildlife. We saw bighorn sheep, and stopped long enough to watch the dominant ram chase around another smaller ram. I highly recommend this cruise to anyone who will be visiting the Phoenix area. Canyon Lake is like a mini Grand Canyon. For those of you that don't know, *ahem* like my bff *ahem*, the Grand Canyon is in Arizona.
The Monkey had a blast, although an hour and a half boat ride is clearly way too long for a four year old. I would say maybe 30 minutes would have been better. I think my favorite thing about the trip was sitting upstairs with Bear and hearing the captain on the intercom. "What's your name? Oh, Monkey? Well, hello Monkey. Everyone, Monkey would like to ring the bell. Go ahead." Daddy had taken Monkey downstairs and he was dying to ring the bell, so Daddy told him he had to ask the captain.
For a snack, we purchased a bucket of popcorn from the snack bar. We always bring our own snacks, but they didn't permit outside food on board. Daddy and Monkey had been admiring the ducks before we boarded the boat and I made the mistake of telling Monkey that we could feed the ducks whatever popcorn was left. He immediately declared that we were all done (after a couple handfuls), and should save the rest for the ducks.
He couldn't wait to get back to shore, and as soon as those ducks saw us coming with that popcorn bucket, they made a beeline straight to us. Monkey (and Daddy) had a blast feeding the ducks, and there were even some HUGE fish popping up to get their share.
Now on to the point of this posting. I clearly remember reading somewhere about how bad it was to feed ducks bread. Which makes sense, because it doesn't really seem to be doing us any good either. Just check out 100 Days of Real Food or any of the many whole life/real food blogs for more on that. Although I thought I remembered that popcorn was ok for some reason. So, I decided tonight to google it, just so I'd know in the future. Turns out, that popcorn isn't as 'bad' as bread, but still not the top choice to feed to the ducks, if anything at all.
I have very fond memories of feeding the ducks at the local lake when I was about Monkey's age. I don't want to deprive him of those same memories, but at the same time, I don't want to damage the ducks' health either. Thankfully, I now know what is appropriate to feed them, and you do, too.
- Cracked corn
- Wheat
- Barley
- Oats
- Milo
- Birdseed
- Grapes (cut in half)
- Frozen peas or corn (defrosted)
- Earthworms
- Chopped lettuce
- Vegetable trimmings or peels (chopped)
List courtesy of http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/a/whatduckseat.htm
Is this going to change the way you think about feeding wildlife in your area?
Hugs,
-J
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