Spring waterfowl release a longstanding Great Falls tradition
On April 6, domestic birds will check out of their winter quarters at the Honker Hilton into Gibson Park.
It’s a longstanding annual tradition, as well as the waterfowl roundup in the fall.
“Stopping by to watch or feed them has become a tradition in Great Falls. It’s one of those small but enjoyable community things that I think Great Falls people appreciate,” Kevin Vining, Great Falls Park and Recreation park supervisor, told The Electric. “I think it’s important to note what started as a practical necessity has turned into a community favorite. Families come out for both the fall roundup and the spring release, which we often coordinate with the school district’s spring break as a fun season kickoff.”
Kevin Vining, Great Falls Park and Recreation parks supervisor, said they don’t know exactly when the roundups started, but from what staff can piece together, the Honker Hilton was built at the north end of Gibson Park in the late 1940s and tailored to house waterfowl in the 1950s.
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Vining said the city flock, largely domestic ducks and geese, can’t migrate and likely wouldn’t survive Montana winters on their own.
When Gibson Pond freezes, the birds lose their access to open water, natural food sources and shelter, Vining said,
The Honker Hilton includes heated space and an indoor pond, where birds are fed and watered through the winter.
Gathering the birds for the spring release into Gibson Park takes about half an hour, Vining said.
In the fall, it takes six to eight Park and Rec staff about 30-45 minutes to round up the birds from the pond for transport to the Honker Hilton.
Their care takes minimal time and cost, Vining said, with a waterfowl grain mix as the main purchase.
Some members of the Gibson Pond flock have been there for years, Vining said.
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He said city birds aren’t tagged, but Park and Rec tries to keep 75-90 birds in the flock to ensure the pond is full, but a bout of bird flu last year dropped the population a bit.
Over the years, birds have found their way to the city flock in a number of ways.
A decade ago, city park staff told this reporter (when she worked for the Great Falls Tribune), that many of the ducks had been donated as ducklings by local feed stores. Others had become domesticated.
Over more than a century, the city ordered swans for Gibson Pond from time to time.
The City Park Board ordered the first mute swans for the pond in 1907, according to a 1912 Tribune article shared by the Great Falls-Cascade County Historic Preservation Office.
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In 1912, the flock hatched six baby swans from a single nest, at a time when it was recorded that five was the maximum brood size for swans, and a Smithsonian Institute team came to town to document the flock, according to the article.
In 1973, a female mute swan was killed, stripped of her feathers and abandoned in an alley, according to The History Museum.
“Her mate, Adolph, went on a rampage the following spring and again in 1975, that time killing a whistling swan and damaging another. Adolph was sent to Livingston for rehabilitation and successfully re-mated,” according to the museum.
In 1974, two swans were purchased to replace Adoph and his dead mate, but in 1982, someone killed the female, according to the museum.
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“The park manager stated to the Great Falls Tribune that ‘it’s just not safe or fair to keep [swans] here anymore.’ Floods of letters to the park manager pleading to not remove the swans from the park permanently convinced him to let the other swans remain residents and to ask for restitution to purchase a pair of mute swan cygnets,” according to The History Museum.
In 2014, the city purchased two black swans with a $2,500 donation for Gibson Park.
One of the black swans died within a week of being released into the pond and staff were unsure of the cause at the time.
Vining said the city no longer purchases swans and there aren’t currently any swans in the Gibson Pond flock, though there are white geese.
Swans can be more aggressive, particularly toward domestic birds, and sometimes people, he said.
Last year, some pelicans joined the Gibson Pond flock for a few weeks.
“It was cool to see those big ole’ bids,” Vining said.
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City staff have no jurisdiction over the Canadian Geese and seagulls, which are federally protected migratory birds.
Vining said Park and Rec staff are working to educate the public not to feed those birds so as not to attract them to the park.
Particularly, staff discourages the public from feeding bread to any of the birds, as it can cause malnourishment and a wing deformity known as Angel Wing, Vining said.
Staff sometimes get calls from locals wanting to donate birds to the park and in that case, Vining said they take a ‘let nature take its course’ approach since the flock isn’t always welcoming to new birds.
Gibson Park was also home to Great Falls’ version of a zoo in the early 1900s, with deer, antelope, and elk. By the 1930s, those animals were moved elsewhere, with the deer going to the Highwood Mountains, according to The History Museum.
In the 1940s, squirrels were ordered and placed in a wire enclosure in the park. The first pair escaped and were replaced, with squirrels remaining in the park enclosure through the 1960s, according to the museum.
