Windsor photographer helps ducks stuck to the ice during the weekend snowstorm

After the snow, ice and cold winds hit southwestern Ontario, photographer Donny Moore wanted to go out to get shots of the winter scene.

He and his friends went out to Point Pelee National Park in Leamington, Ont., to capture the view. Dressed in a snowsuit, face mask, goggles, gloves, and spikes on their shoes, they ventured into the park Saturday as the winds whipped at the shoreline.

"It was quite intense. On one side of the tip, you had just pure ice and quite a few birds kind of trying to hunker down behind blocks of ice," said Moore.

On the east side of the tip, he said there was still quite a bit of open water and there were ducks enjoying themselves, but because of the temperature drop some that were sitting overnight on the ice shelf got stuck.

"There's a few ducks that we saw, a few geese. We tried to get whatever birds we could get to along the the ice edge," Moore said.

Moore said that theywere able to help only because they were prepared and dressed properly for it, including those spikes which provide grip on the ice.

"We try to release them from the ice and having the spikes on our boots we were able to kick off theice from around the ducks and then sort of warm them up a little bit and put them back in the water," said Moore.

After they warmed the couple of ducks, he said they happily joined the rafts of ducks further out on thewater. Moore said he wasn't able to help all the fowl, as some were out further on the ice, which was not safe for him to go to.

"Some that were a bit too far out, close to the water's edge for us to know whether that would break off. So you know unfortunately as life goes you know you can't save everyone," he said.

Storm sees birds injured, stranded

Moore is hopeful that as the temperatures rose the next day that they were able to get free.

Lynn Eves, facilitator at the Bluewater Centre for Raptor Rehabilitation, said the centre has received a few calls in recent daysabout birds that were affected by the winter storm.

Those included, Eves said, a frozen Canada goose on a river near Chatham, which was trapped on an ice floeand was rescued by firefighters. The goose suffered a broken leg from the ice it was caught in, but she said there's a good chance the goose will heal with surgery or a cast.

A ruddy duck that got stuck in a snowbank in Newbury, meanwhile, is fine, and has been released.

There was also a ring-necked duckfound on a beach near Port Stanley that was "frozen with the spray from the water, so it was completely encased in ice."

The duck, Eves said, is still with the centre, as it was starving and underweight.

"Because it was fighting so badly in the ice, it was very exhausted," she said.

Eves said birds found in distress during the winter need to be warmed up quickly, as their body temperature will have dropped, and they'll have been using energy to try and keep warm.

"They can just be just put under their coat, or they canbe wrapped in theirmittens or whatever," she said. "Take them home and put them somewhere warm, even if it's just in a bathroom in a box, with a warm register, just to warm them up, so they're not using all that energy up still to keep warm.

"They don't pose any threat. We're not particularly worried about the avian flu at the moment."

People should also contact a wildlife rehabilitation centre, which can take the bird in and help it recover.

Winter storms such as the one that recently hit the Windsor area and many places across Canada cancause issues formigrating birds, leading to more in need of rescue, Eves said.

"Because we've had suchmild weather, the birds are staying longer and longer up north, where the water stays open and they know they have good hunting grounds," she said. "So as [these] fast freezes come in,the birds start to move and then they're in search of open water, obviously, to get down into to feed."

The storms will push migrating diving birds down to the ground, Eves said. However, some diving birds can't take off from land and can become stranded.

"Their legs are set back on their body,further than the ducks, like the Mallard ducks that can walk on land and take off from land," she said. "So they're in peril and they need to be rescued, and that's what the case was in these two ducks that we got in."

"That's the unfortunate part about this bad storm that came in," Eves said. "I'm sure there's a lot of ducks that were stranded that haven't been rescued, unfortunately."

After the rescue Moore posted his and his friend Gerry Kaiser's photos on his social media, which prompted many thanks for saving the ducks.

"They understand that I'm a wildlife and nature lover," he said. "So you know, it resonates with me. So I'm not going to walk past the bird struggling or any kind of animal struggling if I can help. And the fact that peopleappreciate that. You know, it's always heartwarming."

Point Pelee National Park has closed the tip tower since June 28 due to possible safety issues. The park is open for people to walk to the tip, but will be closed Jan. 5 to 20, 2023, for a deer population reduction activity.