NILES If Mama Duck doesn't return, waddle ducklings do?

The mother and her babies have gained celebrity status.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- The faint chirping can be heard above the din of the passing traffic. As the three tiny ducklings crane their necks and call out, the humans caring for them are convinced they are saying the same thing: "Mama, come home."
The mallard ducklings, just days old, sit in a cardboard box atop bags of mulch at the Speedway gas station at Federal Street and Vienna Avenue.
A bird feeder rests along the edge of the box, and the babies keep struggling to gain their freedom. Their mother, who weeks ago picked the unusual spot to make their nest, flies by occasionally, but has yet to stop.
"She just took off," said Shayla Winans, an associate manager at the business who discovered the mother and her eggs on Mother's Day. "A few people have seen her flying around, but she hasn't come back yet."
Officers stepped in
After patiently waiting for the eggs to hatch, employees noticed Mama Duck standing in the parking lot Monday morning, trying to coax the babies down. Barely able to waddle, the three ducklings -- the only survivors from about a dozen eggs -- kept trying to wander into the roadway. Niles police Officers Shawn Crank and Dennis Laskay arrived on the scene, trying to herd the new family safely to a creek behind the nearby Macali's Giant Eagle.
"We got a cardboard box and coaxed the ducklings inside," Crank said. "I thought we were doing real good, too. The babies were chirping, and Mama Duck was following along behind us. We were all the way down in the parking lot behind the store, and then all of a sudden she just flew off."
Crank and Laskay decided to take the ducklings back to their nest in the hope Mama Duck would return, but so far there's been no such luck.
Watching for Mama
Winans said several people have kept an eye out for Mama Duck, who's become a bit of a celebrity in the past month. Neighbors in the area stopped routinely to check on the progress of the eggs, and others brought a water bottle and wild bird feed to make the wait easier on the mallard.
She said some people even drove as far as 20 and 30 miles to see the mother after reading her story in The Vindicator.
As the humans wait to see if Mama Duck will return to her babies, the small ducklings keep trying to break free and explore their new surroundings.
"They get out of the box and we see them in the parking lot," Winans said. "They try to move fast, and keep flipping on their backs."
One possibility
Winans said she and other employees keep rounding up the waterfowl and putting them back in the nest, but doubt they will stay there long. If Mama Duck doesn't return soon, the human handlers are ready to take the ducklings to live with another mallard family living in a creek near Niles McKinley High School.
"They need to eat, and I don't know if they can eat the bird feed on their own, or if their mother needs to feed them," Winans said.
She said she'd done some research on mallards, but mostly on incubation periods. She's heard from some customers that another mother will take the babies in, but Winans said she never checked into the early care of ducklings or their feeding habits.
"I just never thought the mother would leave and not come back," she said.
slshaulis@vindy.com