Ducklings stuck in a storm drain? There’s an app for that

While this doesn’t rank highly in the ‘breaking news’ category, you have to admit, Michael Williams was definitely thinking outside of the box when he helped in this rescue mission.

Williams, a resident of Windsor, Ontario, saw a mother duck and two ducklings walking down the street, when suddenly the pair fall into the storm drain, landing in the water about a metre below.

“She started to walk away and we heard noise coming out of the sewer,” Williams told CBC.

He contacted the City of Windsor on his smartphone, a BlackBerry Z10, and while he waited for the maintenance crew to arrive, searched for an app that might help.

“I thought maybe there was an app for duck calls. Thankfully, they have an app for everything and it worked out,” Williams said. “I held it up to the sewer and the two ducks just came out.”

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Consider this a vote of confidence for the Blackberry World, which some have looked down on in the past for not having as vast a selection as Apple’s App Store or Android’s Google Play Store. I mean, if they have a duck calling app, there’s a good chance they’ll have many of the other apps you’re looking for, too.

Now here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: the dramatic footage of the rescue. A reporter from CBC Windsor captured the whole event on her phone, while city maintenance worker George Thomas went after the ducks with a net and Williams played the role of imitation duck with his phone.

What’s even stranger is this isn’t the first time this week that ducklings stuck in a storm drain have been rescued with the aid of an app. On Mother’s Day, a mother and son in New York spotted a duck hovering near a storm drain in the park, The Patch reports. When they went over, the pair used a flashlight app on their smartphone to peer into the drain, and spot two baby ducklings down below. The ducklings were rescued, and everyone had a happy Mother’s Day in the end.

Who knows, maybe we’ll soon be seeing a whole new genre of apps, geared just towards rescuing ducklings. That’ll be a sign the app developers have really quacked.

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