Another side to a long-running duck story

I wish to reply to the letter "Respect deserved for duck rescuers" from Ms Susan Keatinge that was published in the Peninsula News on November 14.

I would like to provide another side to Ms Keatinge's duck story.

The duck issue on St Huberts Island and the disputes with Ms Keatinge's neighbours actually goes back to 2008.

Ms Keatinge, supported by her husband, has been feeding and breeding ducks at their property ever since.

I would like to appeal to people who believe this is doing a good thing for the ducks and the environment.

Ms Keatinge is not looking only after the injured ducks, but is feeding healthy ducks, along with pigeons, lorikeets, corellas and numerous cockatoos.

I am attaching a couple of images that show 40 to 50 ducks near their property as well as nearby houses and, at the time of these images being taken, none of the ducks appeared to be having an injury or recovering from one.

Ms Keatinge and her husband were issued with an order by Gosford Council in 2013 to remove feeding bowls and pools from their backyard.

After this order being issued, we had relatively quiet 12 months, being almost duck-free in our street.

Once the order expired, the feeding ducks and birds resumed twice a day.

Many of the ducks have become dependent on the food provided, so I am not really sure how that helps the environment.

The ducks have sought to find a territory of their own, which usually means neighbours' swimming pools.

Some neighbours have found dead ducklings in their pools.

Some have backyard veggie patches and because of the availability of food we have had an influx of vermin.

A neighbour has complained of bite marks in a lot of the tomatoes and seedlings that have been eaten of at ground level.

Last year my then two-year-old daughter was attacked by a male duck that was building a nest along with a female in our garden, next to our front door.

I do not need to describe how distressed my daughter was by the attack.

If you have children, you can imagine the horror, the tears and the shock after being attacked on our own property.

However, the saddest part is that this has already forced two families to move out of Attunga Close, as they could no longer bear the disgusting environment.

Would you like to: have to wash your clothes again due to duck faeces as they fly over your property?

Consider the amount of water being wasted having to rewash the clothes.

Would you like to have to regularly wash your car, house roofs, windows, driveways, swimming pool covers, letter boxes, and anything else that gets duck faeces on it?

Would you like to have to pick up duck faeces from your front lawn if you do not want to walk into your house?

Picking up duck excrements has turned into almost a daily activity for many of our neighbours.

I have recently collected a bucket full of duck faeces after coming home from a long weekend break.

We have been woken by ducks fighting and mating on our lawn at 2am, and have put up with strong smell of excrement.

I suffer from severe allergy to feathers and have had a couple of episodes of nose bleeds and difficulty breathing whilst working in the front garden of our property.

I have to deal with vermin that have become more prevalent.

Rats have been seen scurrying along the tops of fences at night.

It is bringing some serious issues into the neighbourhood.

We have tried to settle our neighbourhood dispute via the Community Justice Centre in June this year, but Ms Keatinge and her husband refused mediation.

The message we have is please be considerate of neighbours.

If you wish to continue with your "duck rescuing" mission, do so somewhere else and not in a residential area.

There are a lot of farms and acreage more suitable.

If you have had similar experience, please share your story through the Forum.

Email, 21 Nov 2016

Martina O'Brien, St Huberts Island