By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
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BLUEFIELD, Va. – After two first-time rescuers armed with hopes and towels waded through a creek and gave chase Thursday evening, four ducks greasy and distressed with diesel fuel were awaiting a bath from a Mercer County veterinarian.
Ever since a line on a diesel fuel tank ruptured July 5 at Ammar’s, Inc., crews with Marshall Miller & Associates, an environmental engineering firm, and firefighters in both Virginia and West Virginia have been working to contain and clean up fuel that flowed into Beaver Creek and the Bluestone River.
Meanwhile, ducks covered with diesel fuel could be seen huddling along the shores of Beaver Creek. Nine were counted in the vicinity of Jack Asbury Park in downtown Bluefield, Va. After inquires by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service searched for local entities that could help rescue the ducks.
First, officials in an office hundreds of miles away had to find out where the ducks could be found. The Daily Telegraph provided this information and relayed it to the Three Rivers Avian Center in Summers County. Wendy Perrion of Three Rivers soon said that Dr. Bill Streit of All Creatures Veterinary Clinic near Princeton was standing by with his services. Perrion later received permission to take the ducks out of Virginia — state regulations prohibit taking migratory birds out of the state — and she contacted two new volunteers.
Emily Oblinger, 24, and her father Mark Oblinger, 50, both of Bluefield, Va., went to Beaver Creek as soon as they received the call. A member of the Daily Telegraph staff also went to the park, but the Oblingers already had a distressed duck swaddled in a towel like a newborn baby.
They saw some other ducks, but the birds fled downstream — and one flew — as soon as rescuers approached them.
“They let you get about six feet away,” Mark Oblinger said as he waded through the creek. “They know how long your arms are.”
The Oblingers moved upstream toward South College Avenue in hopes of finding more ducks. Meanwhile, Mayor Don Harris noted a Daily Telegraph staff member holding a rescued duck. After being told about the rescue effort, he immediately went to his nearby jewelry store and brought a cardboard box and some plastic shipping cartons to hold the ducks for their ride to Princeton. The Oblingers soon returned with two more ducks, one craning its neck and looking about in seeming bewilderment.
A search upstream turned up another duck, but it escaped into some bushes and couldn’t be caught. Another hid inside a bridge culvert and couldn’t be reached.
For one duck, rescue came too late. It was found dead not far from the creek.
Mark Oblinger decided it was best to leave for Princeton immediately instead of trying to chase down more ducks only to lose those that had been caught already. The trip had hardly started when Emily spotted another duck, left the car and gave chase. Soon she was holding another kicking, squirming passenger at arms length.
All four ducks were awaiting a cleaning Thursday evening. While giving a distressed bird a bath might sound simple, it’s important that aveterinary professional handle the work, Perrion said at Three Rivers Avian Center.
“All you’re doing is prolonging its agony if you do that,” she said of any well-intentioned cleaning efforts from people with no training. “They need special treatment. There’s a whole advanced protocol involved, and work on the effects of ingestion, inhalation, everything you have to deal with on a human.”
The ducks’ prognosis had not been fully determined.
“They (veterinarians) will get them on the road to recovery, hopefully, but long-term effects are not always good,” Perrion said.
Mark and Emily Oblinger volunteered at Three Rivers Avian Center only last week.
“Emily’s a college graduate,” Mark Oblinger said on the telephone soon after bringing the ducks to Princeton. “She’s going after a degree in biology because she wants to be involved in this kind of work.”
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
