44th Avenue East rescue stops ducklings from going down the drain

Jules Brownwell was the first East County resident to notice something amiss on her mid-August morning bike ride down the newly opened 44th Avenue East extension.

A black-bellied whistling duck standing on top of a drainage grate just east of the bridge that crosses Interstate 75 didn’t seem quite right. When Brownwell looked down into the grate, she spotted a flock of seven chirping ducklings. 

She called the fire department, Manatee County 311 and an animal rescue, but couldn’t get any help, so she called her husband George Stroberg. 

Brownwell couldn't budge the heavy grate cover alone.

Not only did Stroberg come to help, but other East County residents started gathering around the grate, too. Then, the group flagged down a Manatee County truck. 

In the end, seven residents and one off-duty county worker, only identified as David, assembled into an impromptu wildlife rescue team. 

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A husband and wife, who also happened to be contractors, ran home and returned with a crowbar, rebar and wood to pry the grate cover up from the road. 

All the while, the mama and papa ducks kept a close eye on their babies from all angles.

One duck perched on the cement barrier between the street and the sidewalk, while the other circled overhead. Brownwell said neither strayed further than 15 feet away from the scene. 

“It was the craziest thing,” she said. “I think they knew that we were going to help them.”  

The parent ducks were constantly calling out to the ducklings. They were also wandering out onto 44th Avenue. The one circling overhead was landing periodically in the middle of the road.  

It took nearly three hours to free the ducklings. Brownwell worried one of the parents would be hit by a car before the family could reunite. 

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Once the grate cover was finally removed, the rescuers encountered a second problem. The ducklings were swimming in and out of the culvert underneath the road, so they couldn’t reach them even with a net. 

The opening to the culvert was too small for a grown adult to get inside, so the group found a nearby manhole. 

“It was amazing,” Brownwell said. “The men crawled down in (the manhole), just squeezing in.”

The men swept the water with a broom to create a wave action that herded the ducklings out of the culvert. The rest of the group waited on the other side with the net.   

One by one, the ducklings were pulled up from the drain and released into a nearby pond.

Brownwell released the first duckling. She said the minute the duckling started to swim, the mama duck swooped down and ushered the baby into the cattails along the side of the pond.

One of the most remarkable parts of the experience for Brownwell was that none of the rescuers were originally headed in that direction the morning of Aug. 17. 

“It was as if we were all sent that way,” she said. “And everybody was going to stay until we got all the ducklings out.”