Birds

Manager’s wildlife photos: the tale of Sam the Duckling

Today’s “wildlife” comprises photos and videos of Sam, the orphan duckling I rescued last week. I have to say that spending a day and a half with this duckling was one of the loveliest experiences of my life, even though it took a lot of time and work.
The backstory: on May 20, someone found Sam (the name is for a sex-indeterminate duckling, which could be either “Samantha” or “Sammy”; I’ll use the male sex here) on the sidewalk two blocks away from Botany Pond. It was surely the remnant of another brood that probably didn’t survive an attempted trek to water.
A person brought Sam to the pond and tried to put the duckling with Honey’s brood. They immediately turned on it, of course, as this critter was just one day old (it still had its egg tooth, which they lose after a day), and hardly compatible with a brood more than two weeks older. Then someone—all I now is that it was a large man, probably a employee of the University—took Sam and dumped him into the adjacent channel.
When I came out for the afternoon feeding, Sam was swimming aimlessly in the channel, making loud distress peeps, with a crowd of people around him. I immediately fished him out, took him upstairs, dried him off with a Kleenex, and made him a nice box next to a space heater, equipped with clean, soft tee-shirts (I’ve learned to keep a few around), water, and some crushed mealworms and duckling chow.
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