The other day, Matthew Lyson received a call for help that immediately sent him running to his car. On the other line, a local naturalist named Brenna had reported seeing a gaggle of waterfowl roaming around Crosswinds Marsh, a nature preserve in Wayne
County, Michigan — but one of them wasn’t like the others.
After driving for an hour, Lyson arrived to find a white Pekin duck swimming alongside “some Canada geese buddies.” As the owner of Michigan Duck Rescue and Sanctuary, Lyson could tell right away that the duck wasn’t wild but instead someone’s pet who had sadly been abandoned.
This was far from Lyson’s first time encountering an abandoned duck in the wild. He’s unfortunately seen many cases of domesticated ducks being left to fend for themselves. But the way this sweet Pekin was trying to blend in with the geese felt extra heartbreaking.
“It was actually sad in one respect, watching the dumped domestic angel trying to make friends with anything in the wild that might accept him,” Lyson wrote on Facebook.
Lyson first tried luring the duck out of the water with food, but he quickly realized that the duck had no interest in his treats.
“[T]hat told me right off that this was not going to be easy,” Lyson wrote.
After 15 minutes of observing the duck’s movements, hoping to catch him, the rescue took an unexpected turn.
“In a matter of what seemed like seconds, the Canadian geese that he was hanging with just disappeared into the reeds, and in the blink of an eye, so did my target,” Lyson wrote.
Lyson lost sight of the duck in the reeds, so he got in his car and drove to the other side of the marsh. There, he finally spotted the lonely duck again.
At this point, the duck had wandered far from Lyson’s reach, making the rescue even more difficult. But then he saw a group of women leaving the park, with the duck situated between him and them, and he decided to ask for their help.
“I pretty much knew this would probably be my only chance to get him,” Lyson wrote. “I yelled across the distance and asked them if they could just come in my direction and sort of fan out a bit to help distract the duck, and they were very obliging.”
The women followed Lyson’s request and walked slowly towards him, spreading out so that the duck wouldn’t attempt to escape past them. As expected, the duck started to scurry away from the group of women and towards Lyson, who quickly secured him with a net.
Lyson scooped up the duck and carried him straight to the car. As they walked back, the duck couldn’t help but show his gratitude to Lyson.
“[W]hen I held him in my arms for the walk back to my car, he literally melted in my arms with the feeling of relief that his chance of survival just improved one thousand-fold,” Lyson wrote.
A full checkup at home revealed that the duck was malnourished, which meant that he’d spent a long time attempting to fend for himself in the wild. Luckily, Lyson had everything he needed to nurse the duck back to health and immediately served the resilient boy a generous helping of his favorite foods.
“[W]hen he finally had a chance to have some food in a very comforting place, he ate like they always do after being tossed out in the wild, like there is no tomorrow,” Lyson wrote.
You can see more pictures of his rescue here:
Thanks to the naturist, Brenna, who called for help and the group of women leaving the park that day, the once-abandoned duck is now safe and sound at Lyson’s sanctuary. While Lyson wishes there were no more instances of ducks being dumped, he’s always ready to jump into his car at the drop of a hat just in case.
“They are living, breathing creatures that I am quite certain have the soul of an angel,” Lyson wrote.
