Quack! Quack!
When we drove up towards the Outreach for the BBQ on Sunday morning, at least five people were in the middle of the Gold Coast Highway that runs through Surfers Paradise, amongst heavy traffic, looking down the drain in the road. When we pulled up, we heard that Mother Duck and her two tiny babies were crossing the road when one of the babies fell into the drain hole, Mother Duck turned back and gave a quack but then saw the baby was nowhere so moved on over the road to the safety of the park and the river beyond with her remaining baby. So, there was much consternation and shaking of heads while some tried to put their hands down into the drain to rescue the baby who was quacking endlessly, in the fashion that babies have the habit of doing. Eventually they realise that nothing could be done so all came back to start the BBQ.
Neil, one of our patrons, on the other hand went across the other side of the road to the small park and finding a ‘duck distress signal’ on his mobile put the phone down the drain and you wouldn’t believe it, but the baby came across the road to where the signal was coming from. Neil just put his hand down the wider drain and picked up the duck! Truly!
By this time Mother Duck and her remaining baby were no where to be found despite all the ‘Quack Quack’s that Neil and I did while going up and down the riverbank looking for Mother Duck. We eventually had to give up but, on the way, back two people pulled up in their car and Neil called to them “Have you seen Mother Duck?” To which, not surprisingly they answered “What?” To which Neil repeated “Have you seen Mother Duck?” at this point I explained to them what had happened and once again you will not believe this, but the woman said, “I have the phone number of a friend who is with Wildlife Rescue and can give you her number to call to come and pick up the baby duck”. The call was made and twenty minutes later she arrived and took the little baby home to raise until able to put back into the wild.
Rosies and Neil to the rescue!
