Shelmarie Main and Chloe Mallone were
heartbroken when they saw a blue-beaked American wigeon collapsed on a pond
drainage grate. His head hung down, barely keeping his beak out of the water,
and his wings were splayed to the side.
The mother-daughter duo take walks along Village
Pond Park most days to admire wildlife. On that day, two kids poking at
something on the ground caught their attention. As they got closer, they
realized it was a dying wigeon. His head was twisted and he barely moved. His
instinct to flee seemed gone. When they touched him, he shuddered with his last
breath. Just a foot away, a female mallard was struggling. Slightly more alert,
the bird tried to flee but could not.
Main and Mallone moved the dying animals to
safety. As they did, they discovered two more dead ducks. They called the
county's animal control for help.
"It was horrible, there were so many,"
said Mallone, 20, who said she's been a bird geek since age 9. "To see one
once in a while is normal but all of these at once, it was heartbreaking. At
first I thought someone had been poisoning them."
In the last two weeks nearly three dozen dead
and dying water fowl have been found in several areas across Orange County,
including Lake Forest and Santa Ana. More than a dozen were found at the
Village Pond in Lake Forest. At least 16 dead and dying ducks have been found
at Carl Thornton Park near South Coast Plaza in Santa Ana. Most have been
migratory birds such as the American wigeon, American coots and some mallards.
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