Alert motorist, helpful public employees avert duckling disaster in Palatine

It was a cool, spring morning; the cloudy, manic, morning rush hour presented the typical mass of cars zooming by; all trying to get from point A to point B in the quickest manner possible.

I had just come from my son’s junior high school where I drop him off every day. With my 3-year-old Lab/border collie mix in tow, I was heading home, traveling at 40 miles per hour, heading north up Quentin Road, just past Euclid Avenue in Palatine.

Just in the nick of time, I saw a mother duck escorting her ducklings down off the curb. I assumed she was attempting her journey toward the lake of her choice where she would raise her young; duck Camelot, if you will.

I was filled with delight at the precious sight, being the avid “animal lover” that I am, at the same time as being filled with fear of what could happen to those ducks if my or any other car were to hit them.

My instincts took over and I placed my vehicle in park, put on the hazards and attempted to guide the rear-approaching traffic away from the family of ducks. The mother duck (hereon referred to as “Mom”) had sensed the threat and retreated with her babes back onto the elevated curb.

I parked my car and used my cellphone to call the Palatine police.

As I waited for help, Mom stepped down followed, one by one, off the curb by her babes in single-file formation like a precision, military exercise. Much to my relief, the approaching northbound traffic had been observant and slowed for the ducks to make it safely to the median.

Two trucks from the Cook County Highway Department pulled up. Three gentlemen exited their trucks, which they had strategically placed on an angle to corral and guide the ducks.

Mom was pacing in circles, issuing “quacks” of alarm as Palatine police officers pulled up. Mom was trying to get her babes across the median and while still in single file, one by one, they had fallen through the holes in the manhole cover and down into the sewer system. The sweet, little chirps still resonate in my mind as they called for Mom to help them.

One of the Cook County Highway Department employees laid down on his stomach, in the middle of a 40 mile-per-hour road and while a Palatine police officer held his legs, he began to “fish,” by hand, for the anxious ducklings.

One-by-one, as easily as they so happened to go down, up they came. It was like a well-choreographed routine. The gentleman from Cook County Highway Department “delivered” eight beautiful tiny ducklings into a waiting bucket, where Mom had been circling nervously!

As I watched the men replace the manhole cover, we could all hear one lone “Chirp … chirp … chirp.” Apparently, there had been one straggler.

I heard one of the men say, “I guess there must be a sacrifice of one for the sake of saving others.” I bowed my head and whispered, “No, please help the little guy.”

I watched and waited for what had to be only a couple of minutes from the time the men approached their vehicles to leave and the time they re-approached the manhole covers, this time not opening one, but two.

We could all hear that plea for help! I am certain that is the factor that, shall I say, “melted” these otherwise rough and tough men into feeling compassion for a live, helpless duckling.

With great joy and jubilation, I witnessed the final duckling rise from the sewer system. And then there were nine! Nine happy babes, with a fresh, new lease on life!

I stood in amazement at what I had just witnessed — a group of strangers, working together as a community in order to restore and preserve nature.

Not a one wished to be named for their heroics, saying they received their kudos from the self-satisfaction that they took by involving themselves in such a tender and touching rescue.

So, I ask you, the next time you happen to be traveling about your day and you come upon another in need, would you slow your pace down to help out? Would you give of yourself and your time? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is, most definitely, a duck and well worth saving!

Ÿ Condensed for space. Laura Capizzano lives in Palatine.