A flooded garden park, its flower beds drowned and its benches standing in brown water, became the scene of one of the smallest rescues of the storm season.

Chest-mounted bodycam footage dated 2024-07-18, timestamp 14:26:09, opens on a public garden transformed by heavy rain. Muddy floodwater covers the pathways, coneflowers and marigolds poke out of the shallows, and a wooden bench sits half submerged at the edge of the frame. In the middle of the water, an overturned green metal trash can has become an unlikely island, and on top of it sits a single small duckling.

The duckling, its mottled brown and yellow feathers soaked through and plastered flat, balances on the curved metal with tiny webbed feet. It is wet, weak, and far too small to swim the flooded garden to dry ground, watching the water ripple around its perch with every gust of rain.

The rescuer, wearing a blue waterproof rescue jacket, black gloves, black waterproof trousers and a harness hung with clips and straps, wades in slowly through the knee-deep water. Both gloved hands rise into frame and extend toward the duckling with enormous care, giving the little bird time to see them coming. The duckling shifts slightly on the bin, unsure, but too tired to flee.

Then both hands close gently around its tiny body, supporting it without squeezing. Rain droplets cling to its feathers as the rescuer lifts it clear of the overturned trash can and holds it low and secure in both cupped hands, the flooded flower beds and benches still visible behind them. Cradled in those big black gloves, the duckling settles almost at once, blinking the rain from its eyes.

Its whole world had shrunk to the top of a trash can in a flooded park. Thanks to a patient pair of hands, it ended the afternoon warm, held, and safe.