Expeditions with Patrick McMillan: Swan Lake - Lake Mattamuskeet

Expeditions with Patrick McMillan: Swan Lake - Lake Mattamuskeet
Air Date: April 20, 2008

Every fall this enormous, shallow, natural lake is transformed into a noisy, congested community of thousands of waterfowl including many species of ducks, geese and the largest flocks of our most massive waterfowl species, the tundra swan. During the winter few people brave this wild and woolly corner of North Carolina and the visitor is left alone with myriads of birds. How do so many species of duck and waterfowl co-exist and why does Lake Mattamuskeet serve as the central receiving point for so many species? Patrick and Nancy explore the lake and the feeding behavior of these species in an attempt to answer these questions. Along the way they encounter a large alien rodent invader, the nutria, the last refuge for the red wolf in North America and one of the largest coastal dunes in the eastern United States, a place where among so many migrating waterfowl, man first achieved flight.
ID: 8019 EXPD 018