It was so nice out today, during lunch (at work) we went and sat out back in the loading area of our office. It is a very industrial area, there aren't any trees or water nearby.
So we were sitting there and one of my co-workers said "OMG - look"! Turned around to see a mama duck with her 10 new chicks waddling behind her (literally new - I'd say just starting to get around)
 OMG - they were SO cute!
 Mama was clearly stressed, wanted to take the chicks somwhere and hide. Mama and the chicks walked RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, might I mention a busy, busy street. I freaked out. Luckily there was only two cars coming by at the time, and they saw them so stopped...
Across the street she hid in this shed type of structure and seemed to settle down a bit. I decided to call the wildlife refugee in town to come pick them up and take them to the river. Although the river wasn't too far from where they actually were, the only way to get there (without flying, and these chicks were no where near flying) would be to cross the freeway - LITERALLY. They would have all been roadkill within a few seconds...
So, I stayed there to monitor them as I didn't want them taking off out of sight. Two frickin' hours later, the refugee guys show up. They weren't too great at wrangling them, they tried so many times (and weren't very careful) and what happened - mama flew away. I was DEVESTATED. She had obviously had enough and was scared outta her witts...
So they took the chicks and said they'd take them right to the river. They said mama should find them there, and if not another mama should take to them. I felt like throwing up
I know she's only a duck, but I feel like I separated a family (and) if I wouldn't have called, ya - they would've definitely been road kill (which the refugee guys warranted would happen by the way), but at least they would have died together
I'm just praying that poor mama flys straight across the freeway to find her babies - gosh I just feel so sick about it. Hopefully mother nature will pull through
