How many Langley residents does it take to help a mom duck and her nine ducklings safely cross the road?
A lot, apparently.
If you saw a crowd gathering — some directing traffic and others hunched over with their arms to the ground — on a busy Willowbrook road Sunday afternoon, you likely didn’t know it was all part of an effort to help a mother duck and her ducklings waddle safely across the road.
Jessica Cushnaghan and her mother were driving on 202 Street on Sunday when they noticed a crowd of people standing in the middle of the road, some directing traffic.
“At first we where confused and concerned. We did not know what was going on. Once we started to pass the crowd we realized that there was a mother duck with babies behind her trying to cross a very busy road. My mother (Cathleen) and I immediately wanted to help.”
They pulled over and asked how they could assist.
The people there said that the neighbouring Bosley’s pet store had loaned them a cage and towels with some bird seed, in order to help get the mother and babies to a safer place.
Umami Sushi provided a box to put the babies in and one of the employees even came out to help.
“Once we had the cage set up with the food and towels at the ready, we all came up with a plan.”
Some people herded the babies and mother duck towards others, who were trying to catch them.
After a ‘very long’ 10 minutes, the rescuers had all nine babies in the box and the momma in the cage.
From there, they called the Boundary Bay Veterinarian hospital. The Langley vet clinic offered to have a look at the mom and ducklings right away and would do it free of charge, said Cushnaghan. The vet gave the entire flock a clean bill of health.
The ad hoc group of duck rescuers came to the consensus that they would release the family at Katzie Elementary school, because there is a beautiful duck pond there.
“Once we released them, they were all very happy to be there, and it left all the people that helped today with a great sense of community, as we all came together as a team and tried to help a little mother duck and her babies,” said Cushnaghan.
The mother and daughter said the experience left a real sense of pride in the community, that all these strangers would stop their day to save the ducks.
“We all felt honoured to be apart of this amazing community,” she said.