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/
[NAFEX] A Really Tough Bird,
Lon J. Rombough, 12/04/2009