Iowa City duckling rescue aided by power tools

IOWA CITY - It took a forklift, logging chain, battery-powered grinder and more than an hour for a group of people to rescue 13 lucky duckies from a storm drain in the Procter & Gamble parking lot Tuesday.

Mama's going to be mad when she gets that bill ...

'There was a lot of quacking and peeping going on,” said Willa Hamilton, an animal services officer with the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center.

A P&G employee called the center around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after seeing two ducklings fall through a grate into the storm drain, Hamilton said. The worker could see the ducklings, huddled together about five feet below ground, apparently unhurt.

These types of calls aren't uncommon in the spring, when ducks and their offspring move from place to place searching for food, Hamilton said.

'The babies walk in a line behind their mama,” she said. 'She walks over the grate just fine, but the babies fall in one after another.”

For most duck rescues, there's a nearby manhole cover that can be lifted, but this grate was the only way in and only way out. By the time Hamilton arrived, P&G workers were already trying to pry the grate from the concrete parking lot.

They used crowbars and chisels, to no avail, until Paul Shuff brought out a battery-powered grinder. They then hooked a logging chain to the grate and tried to pull it from the ground with a forklift.

'After many attempts, were finally able to lift it from the seal,” Hamilton said. 'It was a combination of tools and muscle.”

Hamilton climbed down into the drain and handed the downy birds, which she estimated to be about a week old, up to Shuff and Dan Kosmach, who laid them in a towel-lined cardboard box.

'The whole time we were doing this, mama was sitting nearby,” Hamilton said. 'She would quack periodically and they (the ducklings) would kind of sound back to her.”

Carrying the box, Hamilton walked slowly from the parking lot to a marshy area nearby, waiting for the mother duck to follow. She laid the box on its side and allowed the babies to waddle out to their mother.

Hamilton said she didn't know the names of all the P&G employees and contractors who assisted with the rescue, but she was grateful for their help - and ready access to tools. 'Those are the real heroes; they were determined to help me get them out.”