Ducklings lost when drain cover moved

The Town of Stratford, P.E.I., has posted a sign at Kellys Pond asking people not to move the grate over the culvert that drains the pond, after nine ducklings were swept into it.

Winston Maund lives next to Kellys Pond in Stratford and regularly photographs the ducks that live there.

"[It's] really interesting to watch them as they grow and how the mother takes them to the shore and puts them in the water and gets them to flap their wings and splash," said Maund.

Last weekend Maund heard a mother duck frantically quacking. When he investigated, he found the duck quacking at the culvert.

"Somebody had lifted the grate, probably about six inches up off the surface," he said.

"You could hear the ducks, little ducklings."

Maund put on his hip-waders and got into the culvert, but couldn't reach them. A group spent hours trying to save the ducklings, including Bill Ramsay, who works with the town.

"It really wasn't safe for anyone to try to go through the culvert physically to check on the ducklings," said Ramsay.

"We were really hopeful that they would fall out the other side."

The mother duck too was hopeful of that, and checked the stream on the other side of the road herself, but the ducklings did not appear.

Maund said the sign asking people not to move the grate is a good idea, but he would like it fixed so that the grate cannot be moved.

"I have pictures of the nine of them up there," he said.

"I would have liked to have been able to get them when they were full mallards."

There is still one duck family at the pond.