Mallard, shot in neck and cheek, gets second chance at life

A lucky duck waddled into the water at TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa on Friday afternoon.

The mallard in question had been shot with a mini-crossbow gun, police said, and had a dart arrow lodged in its neck that protruded from its cheek.

But after a just more than a month of rehabilitation at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach and two surgeries, the drake was ready to take flight again.

A mallard duck joins his waterfowl friend after his release at Tewinkle Park in Costa Mesa on Friday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“He healed pretty fast,” said Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center. “I think it was still fresh. The longer they’re out there when they’re injured, the more debilitated they get. He had an infection, but it wasn’t a raging infection ... He was really lucky that it didn’t hit any vital tissue because he would not have made it.”

The mallard was first observed near a lake in Newport Beach on March 25 but was still able to fly at that time and escaped capture. It was found the next day at Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa and taken into the center.

Newport Beach Animal Control Officer Nick Ott, from left, Debbie McGuire, executive director of Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center, and wildlife tech Michele Saldana carry a mallard duck ahead of its release at Tewinkle Park in Costa Mesa on Friday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Michelle Saldana, a veterinary technician at the Wetlands & Wildlife Center, was on duty when the mallard came in.

“Even in recovery he was very calm, very good eating habits the whole time,” Saldana said. “We just feel really happy that he’s out here now.”

The investigation into the crime is still ongoing, Newport Beach Police Department Animal Control Officer Nick Ott said, adding that NBPD is the lead agency investigating.