Sluice box helps save stranded duck family in Westlake Village

EVERYBODY OUT- Above and below, a mother duck guides hechicks out of a Westlake Village resident's swimming pool with help from a neighbor's sluice box. It was a warm summer evening in Westlake Village when one of our neighbors called and asked if we had any ideas how to help a family of ducks out of their swimming pool. It was a mother and her nine chicks.

They had been in the pool for about an hour and it was obvious mom was not happy. She was nervous, swimming back and forth, looking for a way to get the chicks out of the pool. After an attempt to jump onto the deck, it was just too far for the little chicks. They just didn't have enough power.

They were getting tired and had no place to touch bottom and rest. Do they float? Will the pool water hurt these little guys?

These and many other questions had us all wondering what to do. Naturally, mom would not let us near her babies and we were running out of ideas and probably time.

Our first thought was to provide some type of ramp, but the flat boards we came up with were too steep. Mom checked them out, but would not climb on. Then it came to me- maybe my new sluice box will work. Our wives came up with the idea of a towel for traction and, after finding the appropriate cinder block for support, we had a nice ramp complete with underwater approach and sides to guide them straight.

JAMES WALKOWIAK/Special to The Acorn After a few minutes mom swam over to the open end and stood on the sluice box opening. Then she walked up to the top and a couple of the chicks followed. But the rest of them were either too tired or afraid to follow. We looked over the situation and decided to leave them alone and hope they would figure it out.

By now the rest of the chicks found they could perch on the top of the cinder block just under the surface and we were confident they would eventually use the sluice box ramp.

To our surprise, the next morning, they were still in the pool. We left them alone again for a while and soon they were gone.

There's a lesson here- don't swim in another person's pool unless you bring a sluice box.

This story was submitted by Mike Wittman of Westlake Village.