Ducks

This has been a troubling week for ducks.

Earlier this week I heard about a family of ducklings that had fallen into a storm drain and had to be rescued while the mother duck paced frantically. Eventually they were all rescued and reunited with their mother. I don't know where this was, but the town officials are thinking of putting some sort of netting over the storm drain so it doesn't happen again.

Last night I heard that the same thing happened just outside my community. This time animal rescue had to capture the mother duck and put her in a cage before they could try to remove the ducklings from the storm drain. Eventually they did. They also put the ducklings in a cage and will turn them loose somewhere else.

Then this morning I read in the NEW YORK POST that a mother duck led her ducklings from Central Park to 67th & Park Ave. They had a hard time crossing Park Avenue, but a New York City taxi driver, Sergio Castillo, stopped to help the babies. They had walked under his taxi. While the other drivers yelled at him and honked, he took each duckling from under his taxi and reunited them with their mother who jumped up and down and quacked ecstatically. Then it took a park ranger and several volunteers three hours to catch the family and return it to the park.

Fortunately, all the ducks are well. I hope they'll all be more careful where they walk and don't try to cross major streets again. Are the ducks going to be following the bears in wandering all over our neighborhoods?