RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Wildlife Center of Virginia knows winter by a different name — “weird duck season.”
January saw two new admissions to the Wildlife Center for care, with both duck species being non-native to Virginia: the ruddy duck and the lesser scaup.
Both of these duck species are migratory. They leave their northern breeding grounds to head south for the winter, passing through Virginia along the way.
These two ducks decided to extend their stays — but not for the best reasons.
The ruddy duck was admitted to the Wildlife Center on Jan. 17 by an animal control officer, who found the male duck injured along a Richmond road.
His examination led staff to believe he mistook the roadway for a body of water and dove at it, injuring the inside of his mouth and both eyes in the resulting crash. What made this worse is that ruddy ducks can only take off from water — which means he was left stranded until the officer found him.