Help! Wildlife question

[m]

Yesterday I discovered we have this little family of ducks living in our garden at work. There's a mom and 8 babies. Yesterday I saw the mom and her babies in a shallow pool. Her bill didn't look quite right but she was up and moving around. We placed a plank in the pool so the babies could climb out. Later in the day we found 5 babies in an 8ft. deep window well. No mom around. I rescued the babies, put them back in the garden where they shot off into the underbrush. Today I was told that the babies were spotted last night without mom and that a duck had flow into the large plate glass window on Saturday night. Her bill looked messed up according to the witness. Here's the problem, I think the mom might have broken her bill. I didn't know if she can eat. It's been 4 days since her accident. I didn't see her or her babies today. Could be she finally wandered away to the river or it could be she's dying somewhere under the brush and her babies are just sticking to her. What should I do? I'm thinking I should search the underbrush. But what will I do if i find her? I really worried about this.

[Momster]

Hi:

The best thing you could do is to call the local wildlife association and they could go to look for the mama and her ducklings. They are experienced in treating specific wildlife and getting them back into their environment as soon as possible. Ducklings are quite self sufficient as soon as they hatch so far as foraging for food - their mother does not feed them, but they need the mother's guidance and protection to help them to hide and avoid preditors. If you do decide to look for them, best to put them in a large box, that they can get out of, with some soft bedding in it and unless you know what to feed them, just don't feed them anything overnight, but supply water for them and try to phone the local animal shelter, wildlife rescue, or? as soon as you can in the morning.
If you can't find those numbers, call a local veterinarian who will tell you who to contact in your area.
Poor babies - it's a hard life.
I was just down at the lake today and didn't see any of the ducklings - I hope they were just staying off the water because it was choppy because of the wind, but there's two bald eagle nests beside the lake and often ducklings get fed to the eaglets. Nature is hard.

Anyway, I think probably the best thing for you to do is to report it to the proper officials and do not try to rescue them yourself. You may not know how to catch them or how to look after them if you do find them.

You are very kind to worry about them.

Momster

[tex]

Are they wild ducks, or just feral domestic ducks? I don't believe that the mother would leave them if she were able to take care of them. If they are wild, then P & W, or a game warden, or a rehabber would be the route to go, (since techincally, it's illegal to possess wild game animals, especially migratory wildfowl, since that would be under federal jurisdiction). If they're domestic type ducks, just gather them up, and take care of them as if they were baby chicks.

Love,
Tex

[annie oakley]

The last time I rescued a wildlife animal it was a screetch owl and was instructed to imediatly call the wildlife people and turn it over. But I agree that if they are ferral domestic ducks you can gather them, Love Oma

[m]

Guess it doesn't matter now since she and her babies were gone today. I'm hoping this is a good sign and that they all waddled off to the river nearby. I did track down the names and numbers of licensed rehabilitators in my area though. That could be useful at another time.
m