08/11/2022
Today we were involved in 2 separate waterfowl rescues. The first being an ongoing rescue of 4 domesticated runner ducks dumped on a rural village pond in Higher Whitley.
We assisted in the rescue of 2 of the 4 ducks several weeks ago, who both went for rehabilitative care with Poppy’s paws - wildlife rescue. There they were found to be seriously underweight, riddled with internal parasites & suffering from diarrhoea. One also had a serious eye infection..
This is sadly largely due to the fact that ducks who’ve grown up in a domestic environment, are ill equipped to cope with the harshness of living wild. Their immune systems are underdeveloped & they may lack the survival skills needed to forage & avoid predation.
Sadly that evening, the 2 remaining ducks proved impossible to capture. And late in the night, after many hours of trying alongside our rescue friend Poppy, and some helpful local villagers - we all reluctantly admitted defeat.
This was particularly distressing, as one of the ducks was incredibly weak & exhibiting signs of severe illness 😥, yet we could neither reach him, nor coax him from the water.
Barely able to sleep, through concern for the sick duck, we were back at 6am, before first light, to assist Poppy again with the rescue…. Only to find that there was now only 1 remaining lonely domestic duck 😥, who again - proved impossible to capture.
The following day, the sick duck’s body was found & recovered from the water by Poppy 😢.
The ensuing weeks since then have seen a collective effort by multiple concerned rescuers & locals, of continuous feeding to aid survival - and several more unsuccessful capture attempts 🙈. Until today, when Poppy managed to co-ordinate a small group of rescuers together with equipment.
Sandra & Amelie from CWAP attended, alongside Paul, Poppy & Col.
Col & his dinghy were launched into the water, whilst the rest of us surrounded the pond with reach nets.
Several locals assisted with encouragement, and by allowing us to enter gardens bordering the pond.
For over an hour .. Mr Domestic enjoyed giving us the runaround, until we were finally able to gently corner him into a small overgrown section using the boat in the water, and extended reach nets from the slippery sidelines.
We gradually & very slowly closed in, to cause minimal distress to him, until he made a final desperate run for it - and Col deftly captured him in his net. However, our utter relief was short lived, when the duck wriggled free of the net & dived underwater, before Col was able to reel him in & secure 🙈.
It was then an extremely tense pause, as we all frantically looked at the still water - and each other, in a semi-panic 😬….. until, much to the amusement of the gathering local children - he resurfaced, at the other end of the pond 😄😄!
Duck 1 - Humans 0.
Ever so proud of his new party trick, and using it on us for a 2nd time - we were almost ready to admit defeat AGAIN. Until Col decided to pull out the big guns, in the form of a sweeping net, that spanned the entire breadth of the pond.
However, just prior to launch, the even bigger guns turned up - in the form of the village parish council 🥴.
What ensued was 40 minutes of us being passively aggressively spoken down to & ordered to leave the area, whilst our polite but firm attempts to be the voice for the ducks welfare, fell on deaf ears.
Even the deceased sick duck respectfully pulled from the water, was ‘pooh poohed’ (fortunately there is video evidence)… Never mind the medication & rehabilitation Poppy had given to the other 2 ducks 🤐.
Frustratingly, for the simple reason that we had not sought prior permission from the parish council, to rescue vulnerable & dying ducks from a body of public water - the lady was unprepared to back down.
They liked having the aesthetic ducks on the village pond (to be fair, who wouldn’t 🥰), and because they had spent money cleaning up the pond (granted, it did look lovely 🤗) - then she felt the ducks were fine there.
However, what she failed to acknowledge was that the locals had told us the pond was previously an agricultural cess pit, and that sewage run off still filtered in. This was evident by the stench at the far end of the pond - and probably the reason no wild ducks had set up permanent residency there themselves 😮💨.
Anyway, despite our desperation to rescue the vulnerable duck there & then, being winter is rapidly approaching. We respected the wishes of the parish council to leave their village immediately, with the amicable solution that they themselves would capture the duck & hand it over to a reputable rescue centre, within 1 week.
Thank you Whitley Parish Council for your eventual co-operation.
Watch this space …. 😬
