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Getting all the ducks in a row ...

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Ducklings rescued from city storm sewer, released
Lead Summary
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By
Mavis Fodness

Thanks to three concerned citizens, nine ducklings are roaming in a safer environment.
On Thursday, May 21, Luverne businessmen Bill Weber and Gene Cragoe were working at their respective offices on Cedar and Main streets.
“I was talking to someone on the phone … I couldn’t believe it,” Cragoe said about his reaction to glancing out the window.
Shortly before 11 a.m. a wood duck hen was waddling down Cedar Street “like she owned the sidewalk” followed by nine ducklings, he said.
Bill Weber noticed the mother duck and ducklings at about the same time as Cragoe did, and he photographed the birds as they headed to Main Street past his Jensen Management Office.
As the duck family neared the busy intersection at Main Street, something scared the birds.
“They hopped in the street and mom walked onto the sewer grate and one by one the little ones disappeared,” Weber said.
James Misino of Luverne was walking east toward the corner of Cedar and Main when he saw the scared hen and three ducklings in front of Sincerely Yours on Main about half way down the block from where the ducklings cross the storm sewer grate.
Misino could hear quacking coming from up the street.
An animal lover, Misino didn’t hesitate in trying to save the little black and yellow ducklings standing just under the grate opening.
“I leaned down to try to get them out,” he said.
Five ducklings were scooped out by hand and placed in a five-gallon bucket by Misino. There they joined the three ducklings that hadn’t fallen through the grate.
A ninth yellow and black fuzzy duckling could be heard but not seen within the series of pipes.
The lost duckling was found in the center of Main Street underground.
Two city workers were able to remove the manhole cover and used a flashlight to reveal the missing duckling 20 feet below street level.
Weber had called Mike Gangestad, city of Luverne’s animal control officer, about the ducklings. Gangestad was able to attach a longer pole to a net and safely retrieve the last duckling.
During the 45-minute ordeal, the mother duck could be seen flying around the area, but she never came back to the cries of the ducklings.
“They usually come back,” Gangestad said.
He said he is called to remove ducks and their broods from various locations in the city. It is common for wood duck hens to nest in an egress window, and once her ducklings are strong enough, they head off in search of a better area to raise the young.
The duck rescuers found the Rock River current to be too strong from recent rains, so Gangestad released the ducklings at the creamery pond on the west side of Luverne.
At the pond, other waterfowl could be seen in the area. He released the nine ducklings from the pail and they immediately scrabbled for the water.
“They swam off real good,” he said.

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