Don Balke (North Carolina, B. 1933) "Wood Duck Pair" Signed lower right. Original Watercolor painting on Illustration Board.

Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.

This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Combination Cover for the U.S. 29c Wood Duck issued April 12, 1991. From flooded swamps along the mighty Mississippi, to sheltered crystal-clear Maine lakes, to fir-scented forests in Oregon and Washington, the Wood Duck is America's singularly spectacular waterfowl. No other species can compare to the iridescent drake and the subtle, gentle beauty of the hen. Its common name does little justice to the Wood Duck, but the scientific name is much more descriptive: Aix sp?nsa, "waterfowl in wedding clothes." Today, the exquisite Wood Duck is relatively common among the waterfowl. But it wasn't always so. Nearly a century ago, the Wood Duck suffered greatly as flooded timberlands and swamps were drained to make room for man's expansive ideals. The Wood Duck, among the few species of waterfowl which depends greatly upon trees, teetered precariously on the very brink of extinction. The duck nests in hollow trees close to water, thus it was doubly impacted by an aggressive logging program in some states. But man reacted to his earlier ignorance, placing the bird under the protection of a 1918 law and enacting an aggressive conservation campaign. In the following decades, many nesting boxes were constructed and placed in strategic Wood Duck habitat, a man-made answer to the hollow tree. Wood Ducks found the boxes to their liking and the population rebounded rapidly to the current healthy levels.

Image Size: 14 x 12 in.
Overall Size: 21 x 19 in.
Unframed. (B12951)

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