Pilling's Pond

[eub]

Last week I had my broken car window replaced at a place on Aurora, so I walked around the neighborhood while they did the work. I knew that there was that backyard pond of ducks, up on 90th west of Wallingford, but I had never looked very closely at it.

It's Pilling's Pond, named after Charles Pilling. He started digging it around 1923 as a boy on his family's dairy farm; he died in 2001.

http://northonline.sccd.ctc.edu/seeing/pilling.htm

In 1990, [the International Wild Waterfowl Association] recognized Pilling for his many accomplishments as a duck breeder by inducting him into its hall of fame. Pilling, who rarely leaves his beloved duck pond, traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, that year, along with his wife June, to receive the prestigious honor.
[...]
He is the proud owner of three First Breeding Awards. He earned the awards by becoming the first person ever to breed the hooded merganser (1955), bufflehead (1964) and harlequin duck (1977) in captivity.

Comments

[mh75.livejournal.com]

The ducks are cool. Its worth many a stroll past to see.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You are a useful and pleasing addition to my collection of friends. :-)

I don't have enough duck icons.

[dr4b]

Duck history is greatly undervalued.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

I think it's so sweet that he started at the age of twelve with three injured ducks, and that he had this "duck dream" his whole life while he was doing other things.