We run around Hollenbeck Park in East Los Angeles during our morning runs. There are a lot of ducks and geese that live there as well. During the springtime, as you would expect, there are always baby birds that are hatched and can been seen following their parents walking and wadding in the lake.
When we arrive at the lake, we wait for several minutes for the rest of the runners to catch up, those usually slowed down because of changing traffic signals.
One occasion while we were discussing the weeks upcoming activities, a little baby duckling got really close to our group. Someone had to point the duckling out to me so I wouldn't squash it. We continued our talk and the duckling climbed on the shoe of Cass, one of our long time runners and ardent supporter. It keep chirping loudly. It didn't want to leave. It was covered in mud as it had rained the day before. There were no other ducks around and it was clear this duckling was lost.
Rather than leave it there to die, I decided to pick it up and put it into my running cap and with the help of Tony, we decided to take it to a bird rescue. From the time I first saw the duckling until I put it into my hat, it kept chirping. When I started running with the duckling in my hat, it stopped chirping. Has this bird run before? It seemed to really enjoy bobbing up in down in my hat as I was running. If I stopped for a traffic light, it would start chirping again. Clearly this was a running duck!
Long story short, we found the duckling a good bird rescue and learned that it's taken to looking over the newly rescued birds, irrespective of their species.