Strangers team up to rescue ducklings in Palatine
When Paula Haynes set out for a walk she intended to visit a friend at a nearby Palatine retirement home. On the way, she brought together a group of strangers and helped orchestrate an unexpected, cheerful feathered-family reunion.
Haynes and her niece Tristyana, 8, along with Dan and Robin Tarragano and another couple, helped rejoin four stranded baby ducks with their mother in a local pond.
Haynes, who walks most places after losing her job and car, was strolling along Hicks Road in Palatine about 7 p.m. Wednesday when she saw the ducklings huddled by the curb with no mother in sight. Tristyana refused to leave until the ducklings were safe.
“They were babies, and if I didn’t help, I didn’t know what would happen to them,” Haynes said. “There was no way the cars would have seen them.”
When the ducks began crossing Hicks Road westbound toward Cedarwood Court, Haynes took action. With no stoplight or stop sign at the intersection, she stepped into the busy street and attempted to stop traffic so that the ducklings could cross safely.
Haynes admits she was nervous, having read recently about a Naperville man who died while attempting to help a family of ducks cross an expressway near O’Hare International Airport.
When Haynes safely made it across the street with the ducklings, she began knocking on doors for help. Dan Tarragano said he and his wife were in the basement when they heard someone frantically knocking.
The Tarraganos answered the door and, with another couple who were driving by, joined Haynes in her efforts. After confirming it was safe to touch them, the group put the ducklings in a box and took them to a pond in nearby Eagle Park.
As they approached the pond, the ducklings began quacking louder and louder, Tarragano said. They then saw the mother with four other ducklings.
After almost an hour and a half, the family of ducks was reunited. Before returning the ducklings to the pond, Tristyana kissed one goodbye, Haynes said.
A fence and tall, wet grass were the last two obstacles between the mother and her babies. Tarragano climbed the fence, waded through the marsh and put the ducklings in the water.
“It was like two magnets coming together,” he said.
After seeing the ducks reunited, everyone was excited, Haynes said.
“We were high-fiving, crying — everyone was happy,” she said.
The Tarraganos were touched by the Haynes’ altruism, calling both Paula and Tristyana an inspiration.
“It was really nice to meet people with such kind hearts who, despite their own difficult circumstances, took the time and effort to rescue four baby ducklings crossing a dangerous, busy road, while on the way to visit an elderly woman,” Tarragano said in an email.
After reuniting the ducks, the Tarraganos gave Haynes a ride to the retirement home, stayed for the visit and drove them home. Haynes appreciated the couple’s generosity.
“They thought I was doing a good deed, but I thought it was them,” Haynes said.
Later that night, the Tarraganos went back to the pond, but found it empty.
“They must have been a happy family again and taken off,” Tarragano said.