As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Dramatic duckling rescue in Sandringham

Firefighters in central Auckland had a special emergency callout this afternoon - five ducklings stuck down a drain.

They spent an hour working carefully to save them, but one proved especially elusive.

"We got called to a number of ducks that had been stuck down a drain, with the mother duck quite anxious about it, so we've come down to see what we can do to help them out," says firefighter Mark Griffin.

What they did was search the drains, rescuing the ducklings one-by-one, until there was just one left. It had wandered too far in and couldn't be reached.

As mother and siblings looked on, the firefighters searched all the nearby drains.

When all that failed, they turned to their traditional tool - a hose - and flushed the duckling into a pond.

"We've picked it out from there, so a happy end in the end," says Mr Griffin.

Mum wasn't far away, and with her little ones in such safe hands she had no need to worry.

"It's not the sort of thing that we expect, but it happens from time to time, for sure."

One hour's work for these firefighters, and one happy feathered family waddling off together.

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