Hurt duck makes it off thin ice

[Waterfowlrescue]

Hurt duck makes it off thin ice

There is something incredibly moving to me about the struggle to survive and the preciousness of life. It hit me again last week, Holy Week, when, on the day before Good Friday, I got a call from a frantic little girl asking for help in trying to rescue an injured duck, stranded out on the ice at Heritage Park in Taylor.

Stephanie LeBlanc, 12, had watched helplessly for two weeks as "Albert" the duck, a brightly colored, beautifully marked, mature mallard duck, dragged himself across the ice on one leg, unable to fly, or walk or fend for himself.

A perfect target for any predator, Albert was slowly starving to death. But Stephanie was not about to let that happen.

"He has been limping around all by himself looking for food. The other birds have left him, have abandoned him because he cannot fly. He is going to die if we don't do something fast," Stephanie told me.

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Just 45 minutes later, I -- with help from the Taylor Fire Department and Taylor Animal Control -- had assembled a small team of "duck rescuers" ready to take on the job of catching Albert and bringing him back to health.

"It's going to be tough; he is a wild animal and he is hurting," said Shawn Donovan, a rescue expert with Taylor Animal Control. "But hey, if we don't, he's gonna wind up being somebody's dinner, probably a fox or even a wild dog."

With Stephanie watching, Shawn, myself and a couple other guys tried over and over to coax Albert to the shoreline so we could net him. With the ice over Kohn Lake much to thin to walk on, we also borrowed a kayak so we could slide our way out onto the ice and capture little Albert.

You'd think with an injured leg, catching up to Albert would be a snap. It wasn't. In the kayak, animal control officer Dave Morrosi would make it to within a couple of feet of Albert only to see him flap, and fumble, and stumble away free.

But finally, Dave was able to net the bird, bring him to shore and hand him to Shawn and myself.

Luckily we were able to show all of this on television last Thursday night at 5 and 6 o'clock.

Now Albert is recovering at the Mallard Marsh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Ypsilanti. Carol Dangler, a nationally certified wildlife rehabilitation specialist, is caring for him and says he should be just fine in a couple weeks.

"You guys definitely saved Albert's life," Carol tells me. "He is already suffering from frostbite. Another few days and he would have lost his fight to live."

You can watch Bill Spencer and the "Call Bill for Action" Team at 5 p.m. Monday thru Friday on "WXYZ Channel 7 Action News." To see how Albert's doing visit his Recovery Blog at http://community. wxyz.com/blogs/albert_the_duck_blog/default.aspx.

[Waterfowlrescue]

Albert is doing well

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