In April, springtime conspired to give Washingtonians a much-needed palate cleanser: A mama duck nested on the roof of Planet Word’s downtown building, and last week, her ten ducklings hatched. Duck devotees across the city had the privilege of following along with the journey—from the mother’s nesting days to the highly anticipated births—via a live video feed set up by the museum.
But what webcam viewers didn’t see was the behind-the-scenes effort to ensure that the duck and her babies made it safely through the nesting period and, eventually, to water.
April Linton has volunteered with City Wildlife, a wild-animal rescue center that serves DC, for more than a decade. The organization, which opened in 2013, quickly found itself fielding a crush of duck-related phone calls—ducks crossing the street, ducks nesting in backyards. Linton herself got involved with a rescue operation at her NoMa office building in 2015, where a duck was nesting in a planter. When the eggs hatched, Linton and a group of other building employees led the mother and her ten ducklings safely to the Capitol Reflecting Pool. “There were these little networks of people that formed around the duck, and concern for the duck,” she tells Washingtonian. “And this would be anyone from a security guard to a secretary to a principal at a law firm.”…