ATHENS — A mother duck’s feathers were furiously ruffled this afternoon when she found herself frantic over her 10 ducklings trapped in a storm drain in downtown Athens.

Athens Street Department Director Dolph Bradford said his department received the notification around 1:30 p.m. from the Planning Department.

Planning staff members have a view of the parking lot across from City Hall and noticed the mother duck “just going crazy.”

“They were trapped in a drain on Marion Street east of City Hall in the lot owned by First Methodist Church,” Bradford said.

Andrea Colburn and Jackson Miller with Planning and Heath McElyea and Chris Campbell with Public Works worked together to rescue the ducklings. 

Colburn crawled in the drain because the ducklings kept going into the pipe.

“We had to cover the pipe with a box and as each baby came out, we scooped them up,” she said.

Bradford said the feathered family is going to a farm with a pond where the mother duck can hopefully keep her ducklings in a row and away from further pitfalls.