People are not the only ones confused by the fluctuations of the winter weather this year. George Werenka, a farmer from the Vilna area, found a mallard duck wandering around in his cow field last week. He captured the confused creature with a net and brought him inside to splash around the bathtub for a few days until officers from Sustainable Resource Development could come out to collect the animal.
“I had to net him but he didn’t struggle or nothing because he was cold and shivering,” said Werenka. He has lived in the area all his life and has never seen a duck on the farm in the winter. When he brought it indoors, the duck was confused by the new surroundings, but Werenka said it was happy to eat some oats and grain. Soon after, the bird was splashing around in the bathtub.
Werenka said that he put two decoy ducks into the room with the live duck for company but the duck was unimpressed and hissed at his new roommates. His house cat didn’t want to share his home and was afraid of the visitor.
Denis Gauvreau, conservation resource specialist with Ducks Unlimited, said that it’s unusual to have ducks in the area at this time of year but added that mallards are resilient and will stay around all winter, as long as there is open water and food.
“There is open water near the treatment plant in Edmonton and there are ducks there all winter,” said Gauvreau. He explained that most likely, with the warm weather, the duck left Edmonton and headed east to an area where it usually nests. On the way, it probably got cold and simply decided to land in the field to look for some grain to eat.
Werenka contacted Sustainable Resource Development (SRD), which sent a Fish and Wildlife officer out to collect the animal because according to the wildlife act, people are not permitted to keep wild animals as pets.
