After some tense moments Wednesday morning in Allenstown, everything turned out just ducky, according to police Chief Michael Stark.
Stark, officials from two other local departments and a nearby sandwich shop pooled their resources to rescue eight ducklings from a pair of storm drains on Allenstown Road and transfer them to the safety of Iris Pond.
Meanwhile, an adult duck, presumably the mother, looked on nervously during the operation, from both ground level and above.
“The mom was flying over us and crossing the street and landing on Route 3 for most of the time we were there,” Stark said.
A passerby, who saw the duck pacing in the road and heard the ducklings peeping underground, called police to alert them about the family affair.
Stark and two members of his staff – Det. Sgt. Dawn Shea and Officer Hannah Higgins – were joined by David Bouffard of the Allenstown Highway Department, members of the Allenstown Wastewater Treatment Facility and the local Subway, which donated bread “so we could try to get the ducklings to behave and come to us,” Stark said.
Before that, though, the Highway Department was needed to remove a sewer grate, under which four ducklings were trapped. Shea climbed down a ladder and into the hole and, one by one, reached up to hand the ducklings to Higgins.
Stark said rescuers initially thought that six ducklings had gotten stuck, meaning they needed to search for two more. But four ducklings, it turned out, remained stuck, this time in a clean-out drain after moving through an underground pipe to the opposite side of the street.
The Highway Department removed the sewer cover from that opening as well, and Stark, lying prone on the ground, used a long fishing net to scoop the rest of the family out, one by one.
By then, the mother duck was nowhere to be found, leaving officials no choice but to release the eight ducklings into Iris Pond, where dozens of ducks already lived, and hope she would join them later.
“We knew we were handing them to other ducks and into good hands,” Stark said. “The other ducks did not seem upset by them. I was worried some of the huge geese would take it out on them, but that never happened.”
Stark said the ducklings showed great speed, both as he tried to scoop them with the net and once they were placed into the pond.
“They were really fast,” Stark said. “When we put them back in Iris Pond, it was like they were walking on water they were so fast. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”