A team of St. Albert public works employees can now add animal rescue experience to their resumes after freeing a stuck duck that flew into the mesh netting that lines the Meadowview baseball diamonds on Wednesday.
The duck, which was caught in the netting for at least two full hours, was freed by a city employee using a boom lift soon after 2:00 p.m.
City spokesperson Kristen McWatters told the Gazette that the city first received a report from a concerned resident just before noon.
Initial rescue efforts resulted in a city lift truck getting stuck in the “poor ground conditions” leading up to the field, she said, but a backup, and smaller, truck was able to trek close enough to the netting to free the duck.
The duck, once released, flew back to the nearby Sturgeon River, McWatters said. The duck was uninjured, and settled back on the river for a float.
Wednesday's rescue isn't the first time a city employee was put to the task of rescuing a duck.
On June 8, 2020, after multiple ducklings fell through a drainage opening along Ray Gibbon Drive, a public works employee and a determined resident successfully rescued six young ducks out of the sewer.
Just three days earlier that month, members of St. Albert Fire Services and St. Albert RCMP joined forces to rescue eight more ducklings that had fallen through the cracks of a similar drainage opening downtown.
