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Majestic
Diary
October 11, 2008
Today was
our second attempt at rescuing Domino the duck from
Coventry Lake. He was hatched out at a Coventry school
(I am getting the details to write the school Principal
and Superintendant). We even know who dropped him off.
Locals have been trying to catch him for nearly two
months now.
We went
to the beach to catch him on land two weeks ago because
locals told us he would come far onto shore. Domino
refused to come off water, but it was not an
unsuccessful day because one of the volunteers who
showed up had a 3 seat jetski and offered to help us do
a water rescue.
We were
supposed to meet last weekend, but we were rained out,
so it was rescheduled for today. I only wish I could
have brought my camera to take photos, but I needed to
participate in the rescue using our kayak.
Locals
told us that when they tried rounding him up using the
jetski, Domino would swim too close to shore for them to
follow and he would hide under the small docks. So I set
out on the kayak and Tony hopped onto the jetski, taking
a big "butterfly" net with him. I began by herding
Domino and a group of mallards away from the shoreline
and towards the center of the lake. Once I had him
heading towards the middle, the mallards took off and
Tony came in on the jetski. He couched the operator on
how to gently herd Domino further to the center of the
lake.
We were
fully prepared for an hour event of slowly and carefully
tiring Domino out (which tends to be the norm before
capture is possible). By coaxing a duck to dive, they
tire out and can no longer go down as deep under water,
or pop up as far away. That's when we normally make the
"real" attempts to capture the duck, which tends to take
another hour. That's what we have to do when we rescue
with kayaks. Not today. Not with a jetski. It took me 5
minutes to get him out to the jetski team and then it
only took them an additional 5 minutes and Tony caught
him. I saw his white belly go into the net and I turned
to shore, towards the volunteers and yelped, "He caught
him!" And everyone on shore cheered.
Bruce and
Lori offered their jetski services in the future should
we ever need their help getting to a duck or goose out
of our reach. FANTASTIC! I just love it when
volunteers get so involved--not only in the animal they
want to see saved, but to help other animals in a
similar predicament in the future. Amazing. And it felt
so good to get Domino out of there and into our
sanctuary.
People
often fail to understand why a jetski is so vital to our
rescue endeavor. These volunteers today saw first hand
what we can do with a jetski. It is less stressful for
the animal because it only takes 10 minutes to capture
them rather than 2 hours, and it is safer for those
participating. And... we are guaranteed our bird.
Getting to ducks and geese quickly saves lives.
What a
GREAT DAY!
Domino posing
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