Duckling 911

                                    Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:   
     "Equal And Opposite Reactions"      http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
     "Hail Mary"                                           https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
     "Tropical Depression"                        https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

​Duckling 911

...Continued from previous post:       
          At  the lobby entrance to the Hale Koa Hotel there's a circular driveway in the center of which is a fountain surrounded by a pool.

       During our time at the Hale Koa there lived around the pool a mama duck and her four ducklings, who we often saw waddling about or swimming in the pool.

         We would later learn that there were originally ten little ducklings. But even in this seemingly safe realm of friendly humans, and under the watchful eyes of the caring bell desk staff, who had "adopted" the ducks,

...there is danger here for baby birds, particularly from the mongooses, lightening-fast predators who inhabit the island, even urban Honolulu. One time I saw a gold-colored mongoose zipping across the street in front of the Hale  Koa.

         The bell desk crew kept track of the number of ducklings and sometimes took videos. Here's a video one of the bell staffers shared with me from when the ducklings were younger and there were more of them.

    We were all charmed by the duck family around the fountain pool, but my daughter Claire especially loved them. Claire is a bird lover with a special affinity for the piping plovers who nest on the Lake Michigan beach near where she lives in Chicago.

      And now she had developed a special affinity for the Hale Koa ducklings.         

       However, as it turned out, there was another danger awaiting the ducklings, not from a predator, but brought on altogether unintentionally by their peacefully coexisting human friends.
        A few weeks before we arrived there had been teeming rains and flooding throughout Oahu, and now another round of heavy rain was predicted for Honolulu.  
          A drizzle began on Thursday, April 9.

        That night the streets and the view of the courtyard from the Hale Koa lobby brought to mind for me the lyrics from Les Misérables, "In the rain the pavement shines like silver." 

    Gus the banyan tree, lit up in the center of the courtyard.

​         On the morning of Friday, April 10, the rain was still a misty drizzle.
         The view that day from the Hale Koa lobby:​

       This was the day that Claire was leaving Honolulu, one day ahead of the others. She and I were going to walk to the CVS in downtown Waikiki so that she could pick up a necessity or two for her trip.
        When we entered the hotel lobby, there were the ducks as usual. Or so I thought they were as usual. And apparently so thought all the other folks in the lobby, since nobody was paying the ducks any more than the ordinary amount of attention.  
         Claire, however, saw what the rest of us weren't seeing. "The ducks are in trouble!" she cried. "Look! The water level in the pond has been lowered and the babies can't get out!"    
           Now I saw it. The water level was much lower and three of the four ducklings were swimming around, following after their mother,

...who was trotting around the edge of the pool, quacking frantically, followed by her only duckling who'd apparently been able to get out of the pond.

        Claire explained that, while adult ducks can stay in the water for long periods of time and can even sleep on the water, if ducklings can't get out of the water they'll eventually die of exhaustion from paddling and starvation. We had to save the ducklings. But how?
          "Let's go ask the guys over at the bell desk," I suggested. "They're always really nice and helpful."
          So we hurried over to the bell desk, but before we even had a chance to ask the desk staffer he said, "The ducks." He'd seen us at the pool and knew why we'd come over.
           He told us that because of the predicted heavy rainfall - possibly up to 12 inches - management had lowered the pool's water level to prevent flooding of the driveway and lobby.
           This was when we learned that the mama and baby ducks were loved by the bell crew, especially the staffer we were talking to. "Everybody calls them my ducks," he told us. "I keep chips here at the desk to feed them when they come over to visit me."
            The staffer then told us that they'd called the hotel landscapers who'd tried to scoop out the ducklings with a net. They'd succeeded in netting only one of the ducklings, as the others, in a frightened panic, hopped out of the net and back into the water, while the mama duck attacked the worker trying to do the netting. 
             They called the post engineers, who also tried but had no better luck getting the three remaining ducklings out. One of the bellhops tried hooking a boogie board over a bush then tilting it into the water as a ramp, then putting chips on the board to entice the ducklings to walk up the ramp. But that didn't work either. 
             One of the bell staffers even called Honolulu Animal Control. "But they haven't shown up yet," the staffer said.
            "Can't they just raise the water level back up?" said Claire.
             Our bell staffer shrugged. "Maybe they will," he said sadly.
             At that moment Tom came into the lobby and found us. Claire told her father about the trapped baby ducks and asked him if he, an expert problem solver, couldn't think of something to do. "You go do your shopping," he said. "Maybe I can find somebody to talk to."
​           So Claire and I walked over to CVS. While in the store I spotted a display of straw beach mats. I suggested that maybe we could make a sturdy enough ramp from a folded straw mat that the ducks might be able to get enough traction to climb out of the pool.
           We brought the folded mat back to the pool and Claire tried  to make a duck ramp.     

       It didn't work. She then tried modifying the ramp.

        That didn't work, either. She asked our bell staffer if she could try putting the mat on the boogie board to maybe create better traction for the ducks.

      Our staffer gave her his boogie board to try,

...but still no luck.
​       Meanwhile, the ducklings kept paddling,

...and their mama and sibling kept pacing and quacking.

        Tom then reported back to us. He'd managed to find one of the assistant managers, who brought Tom into his office. 
        "The ducks," the assistant manager said, shaking his head and burying his head in his hands. He told Tom the same thing that the bell crew had told Claire and me, about the landscapers, engineers, and everyone else who'd tried to retrieve the ducklings from the water. As far as raising the water level, "With the storm and possible floods coming, they just can't do that now."
         Soon it was time for Claire to leave for the airport, and it was with a sad heart that she left the ducklings. I tried to console her that the ducklings might somehow make it yet. I thought of the hymn, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" and hoped His eye might be on the ducklings, too.
          By the time Tom and I dropped Claire off at the airport the heavens had opened up and the downpour was upon Honolulu. On our way back to the Hale Koa we decided to stop at the Ala Moana Center to escape the rain-induced traffic jam and have some lunch.
        The Ala Moana food court was more crowded than usual, with an especially large number of kids and teens.

        We would learn that, because of the impending storm, the Honolulu schools were closed for a rain day.
         The one mile drive from the Ala Moana Center to the Hale Koa was rather treacherous with pouring rain and flooded streets,

...thought the folks out strolling didn't seem to mind.

        But when we arrived back in the lobby of the Hale Koa there was what seemed like a miracle waiting for us:

         The ducklings had made it out of the water!

         It was thanks to the torrential rain and the ingenuity of the bell crew. The rain had raised the water level in the pool high enough so that when the bell staffers tried again  to make a boogie board ramp, the angle was much less steep than when the water level was lower. Furthermore, someone thought of covering the board with a towel to provide traction. That did the trick.

     "Call your daughter!" our smiling bell staffer called over to me as he hurried by pushing a trolley full of luggage.
       "I've already texted her and sent pictures," I called back. "It will be the first thing she sees on her phone when her plane lands!"
​          I guess His eye was on the ducklings.

       To be continued...