Why did the ducks cross the Anthony Henday? Edmonton man reunites birds with owner

Extended: Pet ducks in north Edmonton Darko Brkin said a flock of pet ducks wandered into his garage on June 7, 2023.

Darko Brkin's morning took an unusual turn on Wednesday.

The north Edmonton resident had just dropped his children off at school and returned home to work around 9 a.m. when he saw the neighbourhood had some visitors.

"Noticed some ducks were walking down the street, which is not that unusual for our neighbourhood, we do have some ponds," he told CTV News Edmonton.

"At first I thought they were just regular ducks, but as they got closer I’m like, 'They're all white.' They were walking right towards me, and walked right up onto the lawn, and I’m like, 'Their wings look small.' That’s when it kind of clicked that these are not regular ducks, they’re somebody’s pets."

Brkin immediately snapped some photos of the ducks, and posted them on the Facebook group North Side Hub in hopes of finding the owner.

"It's probably somebody local, because they did not look like they could fly, so they must have walked."

While he waited for a response, he said the ducks drew quite a crowd, with neighbours putting out oats and water for the birds and enjoying the ensuing antics.

"They were just relaxing in the grass, eating some of the oats, drinking some water, and then just literally sleeping. Their eyes were closed and they were huddled up together on the lawn. It was so cute to see."

"My neighbours were sitting in their lawn chairs watching them."

It didn't take long for the owner to find the ducks through Brkin's Facebook post.

"Word travelled pretty quick. A lot of people had shared the post, which I was hoping for, and commenting and tagging people to it, so the word travelled real fast."

By noon, the birds were reunited with their owner.

"A lot of people had expressed interest in taking the ducks, so I was like, 'Can you show proof that those are your ducks?' And he showed me some video and pictures of them."

"At that point it was just more relief that we found the owners, and he was extremely happy to have them back. He put them in a Tupperware, and loaded them up in his truck and went home."

Brkin said when he found out where the owner's acreage is located, he realized the ducks had made quite a trek to get to his neighbourhood.

"We found out that they had crossed the Anthony Henday, and we were all so shocked," he said. "There were six of them. There were no coyotes that got to them or anything, they just travelled several kilometres to our cul-de-sac where we kind of kept them safe until we found the owner."

So why did the ducks cross the Anthony Henday?

"Maybe because the oats were better in the City of Edmonton," Brkin said with a laugh.

CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the owner of the ducks for comment.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg