‘We love you’: GR retirees help ducks escape courtyard for a second time

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In spring 2022, residents at the Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids noticed a few new visitors roaming around the courtyard. It was a mallard duck and its slew of ducklings.

It was a perfect place for the mother duck to nest as the courtyard kept predators away from her eggs. But after the ducklings hatched, the sanctuary turned into a prison as there was no way for the babies to escape the walls. As a result, the ducklings died.

It was an unfortunate situation that one resident, John Rau, took to heart.

“I was as guilty as anyone else. Not doing anything to help them get out. I called the DNR, I called a bunch of people. No help. They died,” he said.

But Rau swore that day that if he was in that position again, he would do whatever it took to help. And he got that chance the very next year.

In spring 2023, the mallard and her eggs were spotted once again in the courtyard and Rau, along with a few other residents, monitored them until they hatched. And when they did, the group now known as the Old Friends of Ducks, or OFOD, jumped into action.

“Four of us quickly got together, without permission, shut the fire doors, opened the exit doors to the outside, opened and blocked the doors to the courtyard. We had them open for a few hours,” Rau said.

This move gave the ducks an alley to get to the other side of the building and then have open range to find a more sustainable habitat for ducklings near a body of water. The only problem was that having these doors open interfered with the day-to-day operations of the retirement facility. Clark administration asked Rau and his team to shut down the project.

What may have seemed like a fatal blow to helping those ducks, turned out to be a perfect plan. So perfect in fact, that Rau and the OFODs never noticed that the ducks had actually taken the path through the building and out the other side. The plan worked.

“To say I was happy is an understatement. And it happened so quick,” Rau said.

It was his quick thinking that prevented another tragedy from occurring at Clark. And it also laid the groundwork for what to do if the mallard chose once again to come to the courtyard to nest. Which she did, this spring.

The ducklings hatched over the weekend and more than four people jumped in to help those birds make the trek to the other side , but not before taking a tour of Clark. And this time, Rau made sure to get permission.

“This year, a different deal. Let people know, get permission, have it covered, have security out there. Like I said police tape everywhere. It’s amazing what you can buy on Amazon,” he said.

The staff at Clark was happy to help this year and said it really goes to show what the residents at Clark are capable of doing.

“Clark isn’t just what’s within these walls, it’s part of a larger community that reaches out through multiple parts of Grand Rapids. Knowing that these ducks hopefully made a safe travel all the way to a nice comfy pond that had plenty of food and our residents will be able to go out and take a walk around this pond and maybe see them,” Kelsey Schnell, the marketing associate for the Clark Retirement Community, told News 8. “It’s nice to think that beyond these walls, Clark is still able to support and be an important part of this community.”

This is the third year in a row that a duck has nested inside Clark’s courtyard. While there is no guarantee that there will be a return in 2025, Rau and the rest of the OFODs are going to be prepared either way.

Rau was given some wooden boards by the Clark staff and is now in the process of making ramps to put over stairs for the ducks to have an easier route to their next adventure after leaving the courtyard. Just in case they come back.

“It’s a safe place to nest, and she knows it. Now we have a method, now we know what to do,” Rau said.

And while Rau was the mind behind OFOD and led the charge to help these birds, he knows there will come a day when he won’t be there for them. but he has the utmost confidence in the community at Clark to keep the tradition going.

“If I get hit by a truck, there will always be somebody that can continue it. Because we have so many people that just pay attention, get involved. It’s a good thing,” Rau said. “And who doesn’t love baby ducks? You take the hardest person in the world, they’re going to help baby ducks.”

While Rau got to wave goodbye to the ducks as they marched through Clark, he wished he could have let the mother mallard know just how much he, and the rest of the community at Clark, cared about her and her babies.

“It’d be ‘We love you.’ Period,” he said. “I’d tell her I love her and I hoped she understands. We do what we can do.”

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