Cuteness like this must be rescued

Some young friends went fishing last weekend. They “caught” more than they thought they would. In doing so, they gave back much more than they caught.

Here’s the story, sent to me in an e-mail by one of the young men:

Yesterday, May 15, I went fishing with Caleb and his friend Matt. We fished at a pond in a local subdivision. As Caleb and I worked our way around the pond looking for bass, Matt fished a corner of the pond where there was a drain covered by a metal grate. A mother duck was swimming around that corner of the pond when one of her ducklings fell 4-5 feet down into the drain. As she circled back to find it, two more ducklings fell down into the drain. As we made our way back to that corner of the lake, Matt told us what had happened. By this time there was another couple there to fish and the 5 of us (Matt, Caleb, Man, Woman, and Myself) were trying to figure out a way to rescue the ducklings.

Water was pouring down into the drain (due to the large amounts of rain we’ve received recently and the lake’s water level). When we lifted the grate, water poured even heavier down on them and we were afraid we’d drown them. Knowing that they’d been struggling to stay afloat for about half an hour at this point, we decided to take action. I carry 1-gallon size Ziploc bags (to put trout in) when fishing. We attached a bag to two sticks and I was able to reach down through the grate and scoop up one of the ducklings (eventually). We returned it to the water where it started peeping loudly and the mother quickly herded it back to the group. We struggled to capture the other two ducklings, when Matt realized we could use his ball cap. We attached a hook and line to Matt’s hat, and I laid down prone on the grate. I lowered the hat down to the ducklings and within 5 minutes had the other two out safely. They were quickly reunited with their mother.

The e-mail’s writer said he wasn’t looking for any recognition for his and his friends’ actions. I think they deserve recognition, hence this post.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17, 2010 at 11:13 am and is filed under This and That, West Virginia, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.