Franny Blackwell said she was driving home from the Sheridan Home Depot store on Saturday when she noticed a small commotion near a roadside storm drain. At first, she assumed somebody had dropped something.
Then Blackwell heard what she describes as "a grumpy mama ducky running around like quacking, quacking. And it was not a very happy quack.”
Blackwell quickly realized something was wrong. The frantic mother duck was circling the storm drain while several people nearby tried to figure out what was happening underneath the metal grate.
She immediately thought of another duck rescue she had seen online and turned around to help.
“I did a U-turn to go back,” she said.
But by the time she returned, the rescue operation was already growing.
A man with what Blackwell described as a “big beard” had pulled over in a work truck and started talking with the others gathered around the drain. Moments later, he walked back to his truck, grabbed tools and got to work opening the grate.
By then, everyone understood what was happening: the mama duck's ducklings had fallen into the storm drain.
‘He Jumped Down’
Once the grate was removed, the bearded stranger climbed directly into the drain "and the other man also went to help,” Blackwell told Cowboy State Daily.
Even a mail carrier passing by stopped to see if he could assist. Meanwhile, Blackwell and her daughter watched the rescue unfold.
“My daughter was really excited,” she said.
One by one, ducklings began emerging from the drain.
Blackwell estimated rescuers initially pulled out about six ducklings, carefully handing them up from underground to waiting bystanders above.
As soon as the tiny birds touched pavement, they sprinted back toward their frantic mother.
“She set them down on the ground, and they ran off to their mama,” Blackwell said.
At first, the mother duck had been pacing nervously nearby, loudly protesting the entire situation.
By the end of the rescue, "the mother duck definitely had instinct that these people were trying to help, because she wasn’t as grumpy" said Blackwell.
Mystery Heroes
Blackwell said she never learned the names of the people who stopped to rescue the ducklings.
Instead, the rescue became one of those fleeting community moments built entirely around strangers showing up and helping because something small needed saving, she said.
"This was during my yard sale" added Sheridan resident Jill Evanoff. "If you do know these folks, I want them to know that the last baby duckling that we couldn’t get out did find its way out and found mama. They’re all safe. It was the best."
Cowboy State Daily reached out to some of the suspected rescuers, but none returned requests for confirmation and comment on saving the baby ducks.
For Blackwell, it was the kind of scene that restores a little of her faith in humanity.
A frantic mother duck. A bunch of strangers. A storm drain. And a Saturday afternoon rescue mission she didn't expect.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
