Rockland city crew saves 10 ducklings from sewer fate
Rockland Public Works employees Dave Elwell and Nate Borst and Greg Bucklin, of Belfast, work fast to get ducklings out of the sewer and back into the care of their mother. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
The mother duck takes her brace back to the bushes. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Buklin)
(Photo courtesy of Kellie Bucklin)
David Elwell and Nathan Borst, environmental technicians with Rockland's wastewater treatment facility. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
(Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
Rockland Public Works employees Dave Elwell and Nate Borst and Greg Bucklin, of Belfast, work fast to get ducklings out of the sewer and back into the care of their mother. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
The mother duck takes her brace back to the bushes. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Buklin)
(Photo courtesy of Kellie Bucklin)
David Elwell and Nathan Borst, environmental technicians with Rockland's wastewater treatment facility. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
(Photo courtesy of Kelli Bucklin)
ROCKLAND — With a shovel and lots of heart, two Rockland city employees, David Elwell and Nathan Borst, scooped 10 tiny ducklings from an untimely fate, and restored sanity to a frantic mother duck alongside Route 1 in Rockland today.
Kelli Bucklin, of Belfast, and her son, Gregory, had just dropped off her other son at URock in Rockland and were traveling north back to home when they heard much quacking and noticed a lone duck pacing frantically near a sewer grate at the traffic light at Home Depot and Walmart.
"She was quacking up such a storm, I wondered if her babies had fallen into the sewer," said Bucklin. As they turned around to investigate, a truck arrived and Elwell and Borst, environmental technicians with the City of Rockland’s Wastewater Treatment Facility, hopped out with a shovel.
"Just before we reached the entrance, those two fine city employees showed up," said Bucklin.
Apparently, another citizen driving by had also noticed the alarmed mother duck and called Rockland Public Works.
Elwell and Borst pried the grate off the hole, knelt down and proceeded to lift several ducklings at a time carefully up and back onto the grass.
As the ducklings were placed on the ground, the mother duck "just quacked at them and they all ran to her," said Bucklin.
But she didn't calm completely down, and continued to pace by the grate.
"She was not leaving that sewer without all of her babies," she said.
When the 10 were reunited with the mother duck, she marched them back to the bushes by Home Depot, where she apparently had nested.
Terry Pinto, director of Rockland's Wastewater Treatment Facility, believes the mother duck will probably relocate her ducklings, now.
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Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 706-6657.
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