A Mother’s Day rescue to quack about

The Port Washington Police Department came to the rescue when seven children got away from their mother on Mother’s Day.

This mother, however, was a mama duck whose ducklings fell into a storm sewer on the city’s south side about 9 a.m. Sunday, May 10.

Elizabeth Zimmerman said when her neighbors reported the duck was quacking wildly outside her house on Willow Pond Way, she couldn’t believe it.

When she went outside to investigate, she discovered why.

“I felt so helpless,” Zimmerman said. “On Mother’s Day, this mama duck lost her ducklings. I had to do something.”

So she called the Port Washington Police Department and officer Tony Vitella responded.

Vitella, who climbed into the sewer to remove the ducklings, was aided in the rescue by Zimmerman’s neighbor Doug Niemeyer.

That help was essential, Zimmerman said, because the ducklings were running through the storm sewer from one side of the street to the other as Vitella tried to reach them.

Niemeyer helped corral them.

Zimmerman said her children, Nora, 11, and Henry, 7, helped as well. Vitella picked up the babies and handed them to her children.

“It made their day,” she said.

The ducklings were then returned to their mother, who kept a watchful eye on them from a short distance away, Zimmerman said, noting the rescue probably took five minutes to complete.

The duck and her babies are a common sight in the neighborhood, especially near the retention pond, Zimmerman said.

“We see them often,” she said. “Everyone knows them.”

The ducklings haven’t gotten into trouble again, she added.

“We’ve definitely been keeping an eye out for them,” Zimmerman said. “If they get into trouble, we’re there.”