It’s hard for a duck area to get 5 stars from me; this one is one of the better ones. They have a waterfowl/fish food pellet dispenser that empties out a handful of pellets for each quarter you feed it. A handful at a time is inefficient if you want to feed all the waterfowl a full meal. I had to go to a nearby bank to get exchange bills for quarters and then dispensed 44 quarters worth of food. You should put a bag under the dispenser to cleanly get all the food out. I think the right dispenser gives a little more food. Seems like a lot of people let pellets fall out of the sides so the ducks are often looking for food on the ground around the dispenser. It’s slightly dangerous since the dispenser is in the parking lot and ducks could get run over by careless drivers. While the cute and friendly ducks seem very hungry and even come onto the parking lot to beg for food, please feed them in the water for their own good. If ducks get used to coming onto the parking lot, they are in more danger. It is very common for ducks at other parks to get run over by cars(and thus killed). While I was there on a chilly and rainy fall afternoon, white pickup trucks were driving through the lake regularly. I hope they are taking care that all the ducks in their way scatter in time. I saw one lone goose – a friendly Canadian one. There was one lone muscovy – a white adult drake who probably wishes he had company. There was a mule drake who looked like a muscovy-Pekin mix. All the ducks were friendly(and hungry). The majority look like dumped domestics but there were also some mallards with the small, sleek size and shape of wild mallards. The Swedish ducks looked very small for being adult sized so I guess the domestic ducks here are undernourished. This park has a nice walking trail along the river perimeter. The surface is a mixture of small rocks, dirt, and wood(boardwalks). I wish I had more time to walk it. There was a cool area surrounded by bamboo plants. There was no one else in the huge parking lot off Hwy 441. Bring plenty of quarters or you can go to the nearby First Citizens Bank to exchange money. I didn’t see any fisherman nearby but at other parts of the river nearby there are lots of fisherman standing in the water.
