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Photo courtesy of Chris Katsouleas.<\/em><\/p>\n What is it about ducks that evokes the \u201cAhhh\u201d response that pigeons or grackles usually don’t?<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re so endearing, especially the way a female mallard shows her maternal traits,\u201d said Lexi Landon, a biological conservation major at Long Beach City College. \u201cThey\u2019re gentle creatures, very fragile. Babies will imprint on anyone. So people want to be just as protective of them when they\u2019re in trouble and show their compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n Landon was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway when she spotted a bird rescue in progress near the Gaslamp restaurant on Loynes and the PCH. An open manhole cover was flanked by a Long Beach Animal Control Officer, staff from Public Works and a knot of onlookers that included rescuer and animal advocate Markelle Pineda.<\/p>\n \u201cI was driving a friend of my dad\u2019s to the VA hospital for an appointment, and I see cars slowing down and going around something,\u201d Pineda said. \u201cSo I get out of my car and jump out, afraid it was a dog. It was a mother duck ushering her babies across Loynes.\u201d<\/p>\n She quickly parked the car and, temporarily leaving her passenger, who\u2019d been through it before with Pineda, stopped traffic and tried to lead the webfooted family across the street. When she felt that she had it handled, she resumed her errand.<\/p>\n On the road to the VA, it occurred to Pineda that the ducks were going across the road for a reason. Feeling that it wasn\u2019t simply to get to the other side\u2014ducks aren\u2019t chickens\u2014she dropped her father\u2019s friend off and returned. Parking at the Gaslamp, she found the mother duck had returned to the wrong side of the road, daffy with distress.<\/p>\n \u201cA lady told me that a duckling fell down the gutter,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I wanted to get the mom and babies safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Again, she escorted the little family safely across the street to the Bixby Village Golf Course. She returned, looked down the storm drain, and spotted the duckling. She called Public Works and spent the next hour talking to the little bird.<\/p>\n \u201cI was freaking out,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were tunnels in the gutter\u2014she could have wound up in the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n Public Works equipment operator Chris Katsouleas, who is assigned to assigned to the Public Works\/Street Maintenance Division\u2019s Emergency Response Task, such as for ducks down a drain, got to the Gaslamp as soon as he could get away.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has become a little bit of a routine for us,\u201d Katsouleas said. \u201cI got the station 11 call from Public Works, saying there was a duck in a storm drain. Because I\u2019ve dealt with this before, I told the dispatcher to call Animal Care Services to see if anyone was available because I was working on another job.\u201d<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t Katsouleas\u2019 first barn dance. He performed his first storm-drain rescue several years ago when he pulled some ducklings out of a pump station. Public Works Bureau Manager Arthur Cox described how Katsouleas downloaded mother-duck calls to his phone and coaxed the critters to move toward him. Katsouleas had also built a cat ladder out of odds and ends to rescue a very tired feline who got stuck in another storm drain. During the last rainy period, Katsouleas and a few people from the shelter and rescue community staunchly pulled off a days-long marathon mission of pulling kittens from yet another storm drain.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girls from ACS were convinced they\u2019d get those kittens out, and they got them out before the rains came,\u201d Katsouleas said. \u201cWe developed a nice little relationship with ACS, so I was fortunate to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n Animal Control Officer Gabriel Alvarez was already at the storm drain near the Gaslamp with a visibly nervous Pineda when Katsoulas got there. Mama Duck was hanging out across the street at the golf course, watching the activity; then, apparently deciding that rescue efforts were under control, went fishing in the little lake there. Katsouleas and Alvarez determined the location of the duckling by listening for its chirping.<\/p>\n [easy-image-collage id=67447]<\/p>\n Alvarez (left) and Katsoulas open manhole cover and cone off the entrance to find out where the duckling wound up. Photos courtesy of Markelle Pineda.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNormally, we open the manhole cover and try to determine where animal\u2019s at, and then we try to figure out if it\u2019s coming in this direction or away,\u201d Katsouleas said. \u201cGabriel and I both discussed things as we were going along.\u201d They ruled out the net at that stage because the duckling seemed to be startled, so they downloaded their mama-duck calls. Instantly, the duckling stopped peeping, so they instantly shut the speakers off.<\/p>\n
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