Almost any video or photo shot today will somehow end up on the internet. In my eyes, for some reason I’m seeing more and more of them with a duck theme. Now maybe it’s because of the “Duck Dynasty” TV show. I have yet to see a single episode of the show, but I see the images of the bearded stars of the show on everything from plastic cups, to T-shirts, to posters, to “duck calls”.

But ducks, the birds, have always been a favorite of kids. Heck, I was raised on watching “Daffy Duck”, remember him? I don’t know if it’s that little waddle they have or maybe it’s that quacking sound you hear coming out of those “pringle” shaped bills that makes them a favorite of kids old and young.

When my son and I visit the zoo we always make a stop at the duck pond, pop a quarter into the vending machine for some duck treats and feed those “that-always-seems-to-be-hungry” creatures. Feeding them was my idea by the way.

It’s this time of the year though that is the most fun. The ducklings are arriving. Those little tiny puffs of feathers you see floating in single file behind mama can be the cutest!

I recently re-posted on my blog page at KFGO a video of a mama with six young ones getting a police escort across a busy intersection. The policeman got thousands of congratulatory comments on the post.

Now, here’s my story on helping a crew of nature loving people in Park Rapids Minnesota save some ducklings from certain demise.

As we pulled into the Pizza Hut parking lot in Park Rapids, there were a number of people standing at the base of the driveway entry staring at the storm drain. Here’s what happened.

Mama Duck was walking in the street curb passing over a storm drain. Her webbed feet were large enough to walk over the grating but the five little ones all of a sudden dropped out of sight, as they fell through the grate. I was told by an eye witness it was like watching a Mario Bros. video game, only no points scored here. (I don’t know what that means, but I guess it isn’t good.)

Some quick thinker ran into the Pizza Hit and grabbed a couple of “carryout” boxes. Since the baby’s were only two feet down in the drain, the boxes were wiggled into drain on both sides and with that, isolated the duckling in one spot. There were five total. Now, how do we get them out? Mom was up close to the building itself and quacking a mile a minute obviously hoping to get her kids back. The light bulb came on in one of the cook’s head and he said he would be right back. When he returned he was holding one of those extended grabbers. You squeeze the grip on one end and then the pincher on the other end can grab some things like cans from high shelves. It worked perfect! A young man stuck the device into the grating and delicately pulled out the first duckling and placed it in my hands. It was obviously very scared, its tiny bills were tapping lightly on my index finger, I was laughing, but as far as it knew, it was trying to slay Goliath.

I got within 50 feet of its mother and placed it down in the grass and then stepped back.

NOTHING! I came back and lightly gave the duckling a tap on the rear. It gave a little peek and

mama duck made a bee line for my head. The next duckling was being carried towards us. I told

the young lady to wait a minute, you should know something before you let it go. I then gave her

my story of the “duck” dive at my head. It was a great feeling to help out on the duck rescue,

unfortunately we lost one. It got around our cardboard barrier and was never seen again. An

elderly patron said it was too bad, they may end up on somebody’s dinner plate in the fall. At

least they’ll now make it to fall!