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Tag Archives: ducklings

Ducklings keep getting stuck in fish ladder at Sullivans Pond

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‘Ducklings in the river can’t be Dartmouth’s cat-up-a-tree call for the fire department’

Emma Davie · CBC News · 

The ducklings were staying close to their mother and away from the fish gate on Friday morning. (Emma Davie/CBC)
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Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency is calling it Duckgate.

Baby ducks have been getting stuck in a fish ladder at Dartmouth’s Sullivans Pond — and people are calling Station 13 on King Street to come to the rescue.

“Ducklings in the river can’t be Dartmouth’s cat-up-a-tree call for the fire department all the time,” said Coun. Sam Austin.

Firefighters from Station 13 attempt to help ducklings caught in the fish gate at Sullivans Pond last month.(Submitted by Stephanie Keddy)

The fish ladder provides a pathway for fish to travel easily to other bodies of water. It’s also a beautiful addition for those who frequent the park.

“Through practice you discover your design flaws and one of the pieces in the fish ladder that no one thought about fully is what would happen to ducklings when they get to the other side,” Austin said.

He said the lip of the fish ladder is too high for the ducks to hop over, plus there is a strong current. “It’s perfect for fish, but it’s too strong for ducklings,” said Austin.

The ducklings appear to be unable to get back out of the fish gate once they’ve gone into it. (Submitted by Stephanie Keddy)

But while passersby are calling with concerns about the ducks, it’s the people that the city and fire department are worried about.

“We’ve witnessed the ducks going down over the slide,” said Chuck Bezanson, a Halifax Fire assistant chief. “I think it’s almost like a fun park for them and they come running right back up.

“So, we respond because we’re more concerned residents will try to rescue the ducks and maybe … hurt themselves in the process.”

Bezanson said the fire department has been in touch with Hope for Wildlife to try to find a solution because it can’t be left up to the firefighters.

“Anytime that you take a firefighter and occupy him with a non-essential duty, you run the risk that the firefighter won’t be available to respond to someone when they do need them for a life-safety type of event,” he said.

Coun. Sam Austin says the city is looking at possible solutions to make the fish gate more duck friendly.(Robert Short/CBC)

A spokesperson for Halifax Water said potential solutions are being reviewed.

Austin said it’s still in the early stages, but he doesn’t think netting would work because debris from the river would get caught.

He said someone would have to regularly check to make sure it wasn’t clogged. But he said retrofitting may be an option.

“It’s not an easy fix because it’s already built,” Austin said.

The city and the fire department are urging citizens to stay out of the water.

“We all love the ducklings, but do not go in the river yourself,” Austin said. “The fire department is the appropriate one to call.”

Bezanson said the department isn’t worried about the ducklings — their mother, or Mother Nature, will figure it out.

But for now the firefighters are taking the calls like water off a duck’s back.

‘Super mom’ spotted on a Minnesota lake — with 56 ducklings in tow

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(And that number has since grown to 76!)

CHRISTIAN COTRONEO

July 26, 2018, 4:35 p.m.
Mother duck leading babies on lake

When Cizek first photographed this family, there were around 56 babies. He came back later and counted 76 of them. (Photo: Brent Cizek)

When wildlife photographer Brent Cizek bought a small plastic boat last winter, he was hoping to ply the lakes of northern Minnesota and capture the most intimate scenes of animals in their natural environment.

He had no idea how intimate he would get.

But it wasn’t until June that he truly tested the little boat on one of the state’s bigger bodies of water, Lake Bemidji.

“Well, it wasn’t the greatest idea as it was quite windy that day and the waves were tossing my boat around in any direction that it wanted to,” Cizek tells MNN.

“I decided to carry on, knowing that it wasn’t likely that I would see anything, much less be able to take a photograph with the choppy water.”

He managed to steer his boat along the shoreline. Then he spotted what seemed to be a gathering of birds. As Cizek edged nearer, he could make out a mother duck — a common merganser — and trailing her were ducklings. One… two… three…

“The closer that I got, the more my heart started racing as I had never witnessed something like this before,” Cizek recalls.

The brood had swum under a boat dock. When they emerged, Cizek counted more ducklings.

25… 26…

His boat was still getting tossed around on the choppy waters of Lake Bemidji, and the family kept disappearing under docks.

Cizek eventually decided to bring his boat back to the launch. Maybe he’d see that gathering of mergansers again.

And he did. On the very beach where he was heading.

“As I got closer, the group decided to start swimming back out into the lake, and ‘Mama Merganser’ got out front and all of the chick got in tow.”

33… 34…

“I knew that this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity, so I immediately tried to fire off as many shots as I could, just hoping that one of the photos would turn out.”

55…

Mama Merganser was being followed by a staggering 56 ducklings. (However, it’s worth noting that this brood is very likely a mixed family, not a single brood. In fact, one Minnesota ornithologist humorously called it a “day-care thing,” with one bird taking the lead for many fledglings, no matter how they all came together.)

Meanwhile, a breathless Cizek finally raced home to see if he had any good pictures.

“I found one image that was in focus and that I just loved,” says. “I knew that it would do good on social media, so I posted the photo right away.”

It didn’t take long for that intimate portrait of Mama Merganser and her extraordinary group to take off from that Minnesota lake and shoot across the world.

Over the last month, Cizek has been getting calls worldwide from newspapers and even Jimmy Fallon. But most importantly for Cizek, the image — and the story behind it — was featured on the National Audubon Society’s website.

Cizek, an ardent wildlife lover, is a strong supporter of the organization’s mission to protect birds and their natural environments.

He’s hoping his “once-in-a-lifetime” image will inspire people to stand up for animals like Mama Merganser and her many ducklings. And make a donation to the Audubon Society.

As for Cizek, not even the rough waters of Lake Bemidji could keep him from going back to check on that feathered family.

On a more recent outing, the line of ducklings seemed even longer.

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/supermom-duck-babies-lake-Bemidji-cizek?fbclid=IwAR2Q982wu1bvaoKEfo6P5OA0Ev0exTQbdPPJ5sWNMcpN440xEFO-ixTFHDQ

73… 74.. 75…

“I was able to then count 76 babies with her, so she had picked up more babies along the way,” he says. “It’s been remarkable. It’s going to be a sad day when they continue their migration.”

Related on MNN:
Harlequin duck
14 unbelievable wild duck species

The Highest Reward

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In a biosphere rife with anthropogenic ruination, it’s hard for any bona fide misanthrope to avoid the lure of self-loathing. The more one learns about the amount of planetary destruction human beings are responsible for, the stronger one can feel a need for redemption through doing whatever possible to lend nature a helping hand. It’s a task which scarcely sees compensation; sometimes the highest reward is the satisfaction of doing something hands-on to directly help individual animals in need (often the result of being in the right place at the right time).

My wife and I found ourselves at that right time and place Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m., when our dog, Honey, let it be known that it was time for a break in our travels and we pulled into a nearly deserted Fred Meyer parking lot. Typical of American super-store complexes, nearly every square inch of land and water for acres around was paved-over; the only tiny strip of greenery for Honey to do her business was a narrow, sparsely planted bed of shrubbery between the store and a bank. To Honey’s surprise, before she could find sweet relief in the beauty bark separating the shrubs, out marched a mother mallard and her entourage of day-old ducklings.

Since there was no shelter suitable for a duck, let alone a whole family, the mother led her defenseless offspring out across the barren expanse of asphalt in search of any remaining waterway. They stuck to her side like glue, but each tiny duckling dropped behind when it was their turn to scale the steep curbs that broke up the vast wasteland. We feared for their safety, as one wrong turn would take them all into the middle of a four-lane highway. She seemed to have a sense of which way to waddle to find water, but they undoubtedly needed our help in stopping traffic along the way. Without our gently guiding the duck family away from the thoroughfare, there surely would have been some kind of tragedy: either a mother losing one or more of her young, or a clutch of dependent babies losing their mother.

Lady mallard urgently and continuously quacked encouragement to keep them moving steadily along the length of the entire city block. Meanwhile, I scouted ahead and located a small pond across a side street behind a tire shop, so we ushered the family through the alley between the shopping center and the tire shop, stopping a truck and car so the brood could cross the street.

When she saw the oasis, her quacking intensified, but the ducklings were tiring and had difficulty ascending the final curb barrier. They all made it, except for one—an extra-tuckered out straggler. My wife gave him the final boost he needed so he could catch up and he tumbled through the grass to join the others down at the welcome pool below. The mother savored a long, celebratory drink from the pond, and though the youngsters had never even seen water before, they took to it instantly. They were clearly right at home.

Across the country, ever more shopping centers and parking lots are being built on top of drained wetlands and other important wildlife habitats.  Though we may feel powerless to stop urban sprawl, at least we can sometimes be in the right place at the right time to help a few individual animals.