"There were feathers flying everywhere," said one man who stopped to help the ducklings.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published June 7, 2004
SARASOTA - Small enough to fit in a coffee mug, a handful of ducklings gave authorities fits Saturday morning at a busy intersection near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
The ducklings were crossing the northbound lanes of the Tamiami Trail about 10:30 a.m. when a vehicle struck and killed their mother and at least two of the siblings, Sarasota police said.
The driver continued, but several witnesses stopped to assist the survivors, police said.
"There were feathers flying everywhere," said Fred Loveland, 54, a Manatee County employee driving with his wife, Maureen, 50, on his way to purchase exotic plants for his Bradenton butterfly garden.
Three ducklings fled to a storm sewer.
One passer-by took a fourth to his pond, Fred Loveland said.
The Lovelands took charge of a fifth duckling with a head wound and called police.
Maureen Loveland used a large plastic container as a makeshift nest for the duckling, which had a head wound.
"She's a kindergarten teacher," Fred Loveland said of his wife. "She always keeps containers and junk in her car."
Officers Kevin Churchill and Ken Pearson arrived and used a crowbar to remove the storm cover to extricate the three stuck 4 feet underground, but the ducklings fled farther into a drain pipe.
"It sounded unbelievable," said Sarasota police spokesman Jay Frank Sunday evening.
They eventually coaxed the ducklings out and united them with their hurt sibling in a container in Churchill's patrol car. There, the three uninjured ducklings immediately broke out and began "typing" on Churchill's laptop computer, according to a police incident report.
The ducks were recaptured, and Churchill wrote the four were transported "without further incident" to a Sarasota bird sanctuary.
Churchill, however, learned a lesson. "Ducklings are sometimes infested with mites," he wrote.
"(They) tend to also infest your vehicle when transporting them."
