Rescue of the ten little ducklings

Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings

Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings

From time to time we have Pacific Black Ducks visiting our swimming pool. Sometimes a solitary bird, more often two and sometimes three. They might hang around for a few days and then we won’t see them for weeks or months.

Several years ago we had a mother duck bring about five or six ducklings to the pool. On that occasion we found the ducklings too late. Because they had been in the water and couldn’t get out, they all died, even though we tried to care for them. They probably were far too exhausted or possibly became too cold.

On Friday we had another family of ducks visit the pool. We are in severe water restrictions due to the drought at present and I’ve been reluctant to fill the pool, so the water level was down quite a long way compared to its normal level. I haven’t bothered to begin cleaning it for summer either, but that is another story. Once again I was fearful of losing all ten little ducklings.

My dear wife came to the rescue with a brilliant device for rescuing the ducklings. She found a length of chicken netting with a wooden frame around it. It was about a square metre in size. This was placed like a ramp from the water to the edge of the pool. She then draped an old towel over the netting and anchored the whole thing with several bricks. Within the hour the whole family found the ramp and they were on their way, hopefully down to the river. Now the River Murray is about four kilometres away, so that is a long march for a family of little ducklings. A search of the property later found not sign of them, so I am assuming they are well on their way to safety on the river.

Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings

Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings

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3 Responses to “Rescue of the ten little ducklings”

  1. Rose says:

    Bless their hearts, they’re adorable! Well done on saving this lot – Mummy always was very resourceful!

  2. Duck again says:

    […] We have had two (a pair???) Pacific Black Ducks visiting our in-ground swimming pool. This happens almost every year about this time. On several occasions we’ve actually had ducklings come and visit too. […]

  3. Arija says:

    I lost a clutch of ten in our ‘swimming pool’, actually 20,000g in groud tank on Mt,Lofty. The water was about 1′
    down and very cold. Since the tank was circular we could not get them out befor dark. They were at least safe there from foxes. We floated a raft into the middle of the tank, they got up on it and we went to bed. During the night they must have had a panic reaction to a prowler znd headed back into the water. Not a pretty sight in the morning.

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