05:03 PM Mountain Standard Time on Friday, May 23, 2008

By KEVIN BLOCKER; KREM.com



Man saves ducks from death
azfamily.com
PHOTOS: Ducklings being saved

SPOKANE -- As a senior loan officer at Sterling Savings Bank downtown, Joel Armstrong has spent a considerable amount of time helping people realize their dreams and bailing people out of financial jams at the same.

He would have never imagined that his most memorable rescue would have occurred while helping a mother duck and her recently hatched offspring down to the river on Tuesday.

"It was an amazing site; I'm an animal lover at heart," Armstrong said from his office on Thursday.

Outside Armstrong's office window one month ago he noticed the mother duck laying eggs in a cement awning, which rests 10 feet above the ground.

Those eggs hatched on Monday.

When he arrived to work the following day he observed the mother standing at the edge of the awning before swooping to the sidewalk below. What he saw next took his breath away.

"The first duckling goes to the edge and... smack. Just hits the sidewalk," he said.

Horrified, Armstrong darted out of his office and to the sidewalk below. The duckling laid motionless for about 10 seconds before regaining its senses.

The next thing Armstrong knew, all the ducklings had instinctively lined up on the ledge ready to follow the first one's lead.

Now lined up a like a centerfielder, Armstrong proceeded to shag ducks like falling baseballs from the sky with his bare hands.

"In one instance two jumped at the same time," he said.

Armstrong caught both.

"I truly think the entire time the mother duck could sense I was trying to help," he said. "She just stood there and allowed me to catch them."

But that was only half the battle.

The next step was to get them to the river. Armed with a gaggle of co-workers from the office, Armstrong and some of the Sterling Savings staff were prepared to serve as guides for the ducks to the water.

However, it was clear that between traffic, and the ducklings inability to move at an expeditious pace, it was going to be a tedious journey.

So one of Armstrong's colleagues retrieved an empty box, placed the ducklings in it and walked them to the river.

Finally, at a calm location along the river, the mother duck welcomed her newborns to a setting clearly more indigenous to their native habitat.

"It was amazing watching them jump," Armstrong said. "Could you imagine the second day of your life having to jump from a building to get home?"

http://www.azfamily.com/n...93017.html

You can tell someone spends way too much time online when they make this mistake lol ...

Cool story

Byron said:

Thanks, I thought it was a cool story as well.

hehe

Awwwww, lil duckies.

but cute story baby ducks following their mom has to just about be the cutest sight in life. how tragic it seems they always have to cross the street for some reason tho

Cute...!

awwww baby ducks I want one

What an adorable story!

But the bit I've highlighted doesn't translate well over this side of the atlantic! Makes him sound like a duck fucker

psychodelicide said:

[Edited 5/19/09 14:32pm]

Ducks are odd.

Phishanga said:

They taste good, though. Roast those suckers!

On one of the Planet Earth episodes they showed ducklings like jumping 20 feet if not more to the ground, they hit hard, but then got up and start following mommy. Babies are really squishy and bouncy I guess.

Duckies.

once upon a time in 2007, an orger and I were sitting on a blanket next to a little lake, and a mother duck and her babies came out of the lake, quack, quack, quack, quack. And they waddled right up to us and sat down on our blanket and went to sleep!! We didn't know what to do, so we sat and waited as quietly as we could, until they woke up and went back into the water. It was a magical moment I shall never forget.

awwww. what a nice man