Office Park Pools Efforts for Ducks

Tenants in the Village Green Office Park said Monday they fear a flock of newly hatched ducklings living in a man-made stream that winds through the complex has perished since the water was recently drained.

The business people, who have been putting out bowls and children’s plastic pools filled with water for the ducks, said that Greenbrier Properties, the building’s management company, drained the stream to clean it and replace a filtration system.

In the meantime, the few dozen ducks that live there have been limited to a pool of water on one side of the complex for their drinking and bathing.

“They are trying to lay in the shade, and every time they see people, they start quacking,” said Patti Hughes, a receptionist at an outpatient care office of Pacific Shores Hospital, of the ducks’ efforts to keep cool.

Representatives of Greenbrier Properties would not comment Monday on the reasons for draining the stream and how long it would be before it is refilled.

For the most part, the ducks were hatched and raised in the complex and rely on the fountain for water. Tenants said they are domesticated enough to take food scraps from employees who eat lunch on the grounds.

Some of the tenants said they might not be as upset with the situation if it didn’t put the ducklings in jeopardy.

They said that at least two new groups of ducklings were hatched recently, and although a group hatched earlier in the year still follows their mother around the stream bed, the youngest ones haven’t been seen in a while.

“If they wanted to do this, they could have done this a few months ago, before the babies were born, or after the babies are grown,” said Michael Frankel, medical director of the Pacific Shores offices, a tenant. “But to do this now, and when we’ve had 100-degree weather, it’s just cruel.”