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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Around here, where  hazelnuts grow commercially, wood ducks commonly feed on whole, in  shell nuts. I've seen as many as a dozen whole, uncracked ones in a wood duck's crop.
The ducks have a very  strong gizzard that  smashes them up for digestion, shell and all.  Today I found out just HOW strong the gizzard is.
This morning my son was out hunting and shot a wood duck.  When he cleaned it, he found pieces of black walnut shell in the duck's gizzard.  
Ouch.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
Grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/