Wild duck eggs snatched outside restaurant

Isaac’s Way staff’s efforts to protect and relocate potential ducklings stymied by mystery thief on holiday weekend

What started out as a quirky - or quacky - adventure at a downtown Fredericton restaurant took a dark, disconcerting turn Sunday evening when someone stole several wild duck eggs from their nest.

Tabatha Smith, owner of Isaac’s Way on Queen Street in Fredericton, said her staff discovered some surprising guests as they prepared to set up the restaurant’s summer patio about six weeks ago.

Sitting in a decorative planter on the raised patio were two eggs, she said, adding that a short while later, they noticed there were then four eggs.

This mother duck made her nest in a planter on the patio of Isaac’s Way restaurant in downtown Fredericton this spring. (Photo: Facebook)

“Something is actually laying eggs here,” Smith realized, and it became a question of what animal was nesting on their patio.

It wasn’t long before they discovered the answer, she said, noting they soon saw a mother duck sitting in the planter, and her eggs grew in number to nine.

With the mystery solved, Smith said, she then found herself facing a quandary: what to do about the nest?

“I learned that they are protected… and I needed a permit to do anything,” she told the Fredericton Independent.

Smith decided to delay the opening of her patio to ensure the safety of the soon-to-be-ducklings and set about trying to figure out what to do.

She said the Nature Trust of New Brunswick was helpful in securing the necessary permit from the Canadian Wildlife Service.

It was determined that to get the nest and the mother duck off the patio, Smith said, they needed to replicate the patio environment with a new nest structure in the area.

They built a new structure, she said, complete with a roof like the patio, but located off of the patio but still by the building.

Smith said she got the permit to move the nest Thursday.

“We were all concerned mama was going to reject the nest,” she said.

Pictured is the duck nest in the planter at Isaac’s Way. Most of the eggs are covered by down and other material, but one of the eggs can be seen at the lower right. (Photo: Submitted)

Smith had been posting about the situation on the restaurant’s Facebook page, garnering a lot of attention and interest in the effort to help and protect the ducklings.

“I needed to let people know my patio wasn’t open,” she said, noting that while people are always eager to avail themselves of the patio in nice weather, they were more than willing to wait given the need to look after the wild animals.

“My customer-based comments were so supportive of this.”

The entire planter, with the nest intact, was moved to the new structure Saturday, she said, and it appeared the mother was going to stick to the nest, as she followed the planter’s slow move to the new structure.

A deed most fowl

But on Sunday, the saga went sideways in a shocking way.

“Last night, at about 5:45 p.m., a gentleman showed up,” Smith said Monday, noting one of her servers noticed him near the new nest structure.

Then the server saw he had the duck eggs in a hat, she said, and witnessed him get into a car that quickly left the scene.

“Someone else was driving,” Smith said.

The business originally reported on its Facebook page that it appeared the thief got into a cab, but that no longer appears to be the case.

Isaac’s Way owner Tabatha Smith shows the planter/nest that was emptied of its wild duck eggs by a mystery thief Sunday evening. (Photo: Submitted)

She hadn’t reported the incident to the Fredericton Police Force, she said, because she didn’t know if it qualified as a situation for them to investigate or intervene.

She has reached out to the Canadian Wildlife Service to inquire about what to do, Smith said, but she hasn’t heard back, presumably because it’s a holiday weekend.

The Fredericton Independent reached out to the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada, as well as to the Nature Trust of New Brunswick on Monday, and is awaiting responses.

As for the mama duck, she said, she’s still around the area.

“We saw her this morning,” Smith said Monday.

The mother duck appeared to be unsettled, she said, but with the effort to move the nest and with so many people around, that seemed to be the case even before the egg-napping.

“I think she’s been a little bit stressed anyway,” Smith said.

The plan before the theft was to allow the mother duck to settle on the eggs to incubate them, which takes about three weeks or more, she said, and eventually, the family of waterfowl would be on their way.

“She would’ve just walked them down to the water,” Smith said.

But now, the ducklings’ fate is up in the air.

“I am heartbroken,” the restaurateur said.

She and the staff had become invested in the mama duck and her eggs, even bringing her some food from time to time.

Smith’s hope is that those responsible for stealing the eggs have positive intentions, but she said it’s possible they plan to incubate the eggs just to sell the ducklings.

She’s hoping someone might have some information about what has become of them, and she welcomes messages through the restaurant’s Facebook page or by email.

“It would be wonderful if we could see these babies born,” Smith said, noting the entire experience has been an eye-opening and interesting adventure.

“At the end of the day, we learned a whole lot about ducks.”

You can contact Don MacPherson at ftonindependent@gmail.com.