ENCINO : A Feathered Friend Buried After Accident

They buried Millie the duck Wednesday.

Nine neighbors and their friends gathered in Kathryn (Aria) Jaeger’s front yard, on Moorpark Street near La Maida Street, to bury the mallard and reflect on ways they can better protect their animal friends. Beverly Stallings, who found Millie, sprinkled dried flowers atop her body before it was interred. Michael Jaeger, Aria’s husband, planted an almond tree to mark the spot.

“We ask that you take back the spirit of Millie,” Aria Jaeger prayed. “We will do better next time.”

The mallard was the latest apparent victim of cars that zip down Moorpark, a residential street used by motorists to bypass Ventura Boulevard between Balboa Boulevard and Petit Avenue.

Mallard ducks have appeared on that stretch of Moorpark every spring for the past five years, according to Jaeger’s neighbor, Marian Spagnola, who has lived in the neighborhood for 44 years. Between March and May, the ducks--which are probably year-round residents at nearby Los Encinos State Historic Park--breed, hatch eggs and tend their young before moving on.

Neighbors have grown fond of their feathered friends, and have taken to setting out pans of food and water.

But animal control officials say the neighbors’ heightened sense of concern may actually be putting them and the ducks in harm’s way.

The food is causing the ducks to stay in an “unnatural” environment, creating a danger of being hit by cars or preyed upon by cats, said Michael E. Burns, a district supervisor with the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation.

The ducks are better off going to Lake Balboa or the wild fowl preserve in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, both nearby, Burns said. He is also worried that people who chase birds out of the street could get hit by cars themselves.