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Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..
Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
A MAMA MALLARD DUCK and her 14 ducklings are frequent visitors to the Broadwood Towers area of New Bethlehem.
IN SEARCH OF TWO baby ducks that fell into a storm sewer, New Bethlehem Borough employee Roger Hilliard (left) and Redbank Valley Municipal Authority worker Mike Kundick teamed up last week during the rescue effort.
MIKE KUNDICK (LEFT) and Roger Hilliard release a baby duck back to its mother after it and a second duckling were rescued from a storm drain May 10 in New Bethlehem.
A MAMA MALLARD DUCK and her 14 ducklings are frequent visitors to the Broadwood Towers area of New Bethlehem.
IN SEARCH OF TWO baby ducks that fell into a storm sewer, New Bethlehem Borough employee Roger Hilliard (left) and Redbank Valley Municipal Authority worker Mike Kundick teamed up last week during the rescue effort.
MIKE KUNDICK (LEFT) and Roger Hilliard release a baby duck back to its mother after it and a second duckling were rescued from a storm drain May 10 in New Bethlehem.
NEW BETHLEHEM – Two baby ducklings that fell through a storm water grate near Broadwood Towers in New Bethlehem last week were rescued after the efforts of several local residents and two municipal workers.
And it all started with Broadwood resident Patty Kline, who is known in her circle of friends as the Duck Mama or Dr. Dolittle thanks to her documentation on social media of the local wildlife scene.
“Everyone knows I’m out taking pictures all the time,” Kline said, recalling the May 10 rescue that took place along Water and Wood streets.
She said she was taking photos of a mallard duck and her brood of 14 ducklings that nest along Red Bank Creek near Broadwood, and often venture into the Water Street area.
“I heard the baby ducks behind me and turned around and saw three of them by themselves walking toward Broadwood near a storm drain,” Kline said, noting that it was around 6:30 p.m.
She said the ducklings had gotten separated from their mother, who was fending off two aggressive male suiters nearby.
Kline said she helped corral the stray ducklings and get them back with their mother, but then soon heard the sound of ducklings that she could not readily see.
“Then I spotted them in the drain,” she said, explaining that two baby ducks had fallen through the grate and were in the concrete drain catch basin a few feet below street level.
Not knowing what to do, Kline said she first sent a message to New Bethlehem Mayor Gordon Barrows, before then contacting the wife of borough maintenance supervisor Roger Hilliard.
“He was right there,” Kline said of Hilliard quickly showing up at the scene.
Hilliard got the borough’s tractor and chain to lift the grate off the catch basin, but the ducklings weren’t willing participants in the evening rescue.
“They’re really fast,” Kline said, noting that the ducks hid from Hilliard in the storm drain pipe.
In need of a net to try to catch the baby ducks, Kline said Hilliard had one at the ready.
“I think he’s a fisherman, so he was prepared,” she said.
With Hilliard down in the catch basin, the ducklings only moved farther into the drain pipe out of reach.
Kline then thought to play back the video recording she had made earlier of the mama duck, hoping that the mother’s sounds would coax out the babies. It helped, and Hilliard was able to scoop up one of the ducklings in the net.
“I took it down to the creek and it went right to mama,” Kline said.
The other baby, however, kept going back into the pipe.
Hilliard then called out local volunteer firefighter Mike Kundick, who works for the Redbank Valley Municipal Authority. Kundick quickly arrived and began to flush water from an upper drain in hopes of sending the lost duckling down a water slide into Hilliard’s net below.
“He was being particular and would not come out,” Kline said, noting that the duck had perched on a ledge inside the pipe, out of the stream of water.
Eventually, using more water and the recorded sounds of the mother duck, the second duckling came out and was retrieved by Hilliard.
“It took until about 9 o’clock until they got the second one,” Kline said. “It was a happy ending.”
As a number of local people followed the rescue through Kline’s Facebook posts, Kundick and Hilliard took the baby to the water’s edge to find it’s mama.
Kline reported that all 14 babies were with their mother when she saw them the next day.
“She has 14 babies — she has a lot to look over,” she said.
Kline said she was so grateful for Hilliard and Kundick’s efforts, that she made them a cake the next day. She also credited fellow Broadwood residents Kim and Jean for helping during the rescue as well by providing flashlights and other support.
“We all really appreciate it,” she said of her local “heroes.” “That’s what we do down there at Broadwood, appreciate the birds and ducks.”
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