Jeez, I wish I had taken photos. I even have a new camera, but...
My neighbor called and asked for my help with a mama duck and three ducklings in her pool. The mom had built a nest in Mary's yard and three of the eggs hatched on July 3rd. That's no good because there is no food in a backyard swimming pool for ducks. We had many ideas. We tried capturing the babies, hoping that their peeping would cause momma to follow us as we walked to the reservoir. (side note on capturing newborn ducklings: They instinctively dive to the bottom of the pool when chased. It's very cool to see these little guys swim underwater. Also, on land, they will lay down flat, stay silent in the leaves and are very difficult to see) But as soon as we put the babies in the carrier they hunkered down and didn't emit a single peep. Back in the pool!
We settled on catching mom with a pool net. My son, FPM- home from college, was along to help with his finely tuned hand-eye coordination. We managed to scare mom into another neighbor's yard and scatter the babies into hiding.
Mary went to the other house to herd mom back to her yard. FPM and I gathered the babies and put them back in the pool, where they helpfully began peeping. Mother duck returned and joined her ducklings in the pool.
FPM and Mary, with dueling pool nets came at mom from opposite sides of the pool. Got her! -but how the heck to pull her out without letting her loose or drowning her? That's where I came in. I jumped in the pool with my clothes on and carefully extracted mother duck from the net. I put her in the pet carrier. FPM scooped up the babes with the net and they were reunited with mom.
Mary, FPM and I hopped in my car and drove to the "No Trespassing" Baldwin Dam reservoir. We had to hike in to a spot where we could get underneath the fence, then hike to another area of the lake where we could actually get to the water. The lake is low and there are a ton of reeds along the shore. Finally, we found it- a place where the reeds were mashed down! We set the carrier down, opened the door and moved away. Mother and her babies walked out, went to the water and swam away. Happy ending for ducks and the humans felt good too! Darn, I wish I had thought of my camera...
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6 comments:
No time for that in an emergency!
You did a great deed.
yey for the ducks!! good thing they had you guys around:)
Three cheers to Claire and her team of duck lovers.
That read like a humorous column in a Sunday paper! Sounds like quite the spectacle.
val -thanks, it was a good feeling!
I think that's awesome that you would do this. We had a Robin's nest in our backyard. It was cool seeing the eggs in it and then when they hatched and stuff. You rock!
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