Unexpected Duck rescue!

Living in the lower calif desert, its just too hot to day ride, so I have been rideing at night. 110+ degrees this time of year. Yet we have a lot of golf courses here that attract wildlife to the area that would not usually be here,,, Like Ducks.
Wall past midnight, and Im trying to work my way home via a winding bikepath next to the main road when my frustration with the aim of my headlight reached its limit. For no other reason, I decided to pull over and take a break in absolute darkness. With nothing on my mind but my own exhaustion, and the thought of my frustration in trying to find the right light set up, and thoughts of a cold beer when I got home, miles away. All this had me focused on my bike. Being an unlit backroad short cut, I could not see anything that was not in front of my headlight. Not another person for miles. My ears were still ringing from the ride as i tried to focus my eyes on my headlamp in the dark, as i pushed the bulb a little bit further back in the housing, hopeing to get more of a beam effect. Suddenly I hear a pannicy quacking right next to me..
It was a large femail mallard from one of the Golf lakes. I began to get my focus in the dark. She was right next to me having what i can only describe as a duck hissy fit. She waddled over to the edge of the curb were i could see her baby chicks lined up in the gutter trying to get off the street. They could not make the leap over the curb. The mother, like me, didnt want to travel in the day, and was moving her babies at night. But once they jumped down on the street to get accross, they could not get up the side of the curb, and were now standing on hot asphalt for god nows how long. I helped them up, one by one, and as i turned to leave, one more began quacking in the distance to let me know, Dont forget me. I found him lost in middle of the street. got him back to mom asap. She led them thrue a near by hedge to the fairway on the other side. I could not get over how if I had not stopped to fix my headlight, what would have happened to them. And at that spot too. not 30 feet sooner or later, but right there. If my light had been working well, or even worse, If the light failed, I could be telling you the tail of my free duck dinner. Hope they are doing well!

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there is a reason for everything! the man works in mysterious ways!

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I'll keep rollin "FileStyle"

Cool story. Amazing really.

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Now I feel better about my constant "turtle rescues".....

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If it ain't broke, and you mess with it long enough, it will be.

BTW- how long can you run one of those little after market "fog lights" or "driving lights" on a motorcycle battery? Long enough to get you home?

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If it ain't broke, and you mess with it long enough, it will be.

awww... thats sooo cute...

its almost disney lol

The mother must have been very tame to let you get that close without using your ankle as a chewing post. I have had both a duck and a swan have a go at my legs when I was a kid and they can do more damage than you'd think..

Its nice to see someone that cares about nature as opposed to some of the idiots around my way who would swerve to *hit* something on the road, cyclists included.

I got harassed by the cops one time for riding too fast around a roundabout... (about 30mph) ... and I was half ready to tell him the reason I did was that I would rather go round it at speed in the right lane than try and go round the edge and have some idiot wipe me out..

Jemma xx

"Sir... I am arresting you for the offense of 'cuteness with intent to nauseate' - you do not have to say anything, but anything you do say will be taken down and printed in big letters for the under-5's" - Tom Holt

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Schwinn Cruiser - £200
2-Stroke engine kit - £150
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For everything else theres MasterCard

Sounds like another "random act of kindness" to me. Lord knows we need more of them. I kept telling my girlfriends father that birds Do fly at night. He believed me when he saw the seagull hanging half out of my motorcycle headlght. Head on @ 70 mph. Later Tramp

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Seagull in a headlight, ouch.

Glad you were there to help the ducks out

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