Adam Hartwig, Middlesex Township manager, holds one of the ducklings he and Alex Mills, a township police officer, rescued Wednesday from a catch basin in Weatherburn Heights. Submitted photo

Wednesday was just ducky for Adam Hartwig, Middlesex Township manager.

Hartwig was chatting with Alex Mills, a township police officer, at about 8 a.m. when a 911 dispatcher requested an officer respond to the Eagle Ridge section of Weatherburn Heights housing development.

Residents there had called 911 to report that the eight ducklings in a neighborhood nest were missing, and the mother mallard was flying excitedly over a catch basin in the road.

When the residents approached the catch basin, they relayed to the dispatcher that they could hear frantic peeping from deep inside.

So Hartwig and Mills hopped inside a Middlesex cruiser and drove to the scene.

Once there, the pair pried up the grate over a storm drain where the pathetic peeps could be heard.

Thankfully, a resident gave Hartwig a sweatsuit to wear over his work ensemble.

Officer Alex Mills of the Middlesex Township Police Department waits with a plastic Easter bucket for township manager Adam Hartwig to hand him a duckling for placement in the bucket, which was then handed up to residents to release to its nervous mother nearby. Submitted photo

“I was able to climb down the ladder and slide up one of the pipes feet first so I could contort myself to go headfirst down one of the other pipes,” the obviously non-claustrophobic Hartwig said.

While a few ducklings were easily reachable in the catch basin, others were about 15 feet inside the pipe into which Hartwig had wedged himself.

The babies immediately waddled away at the frightening sight of their erstwhile rescuer and headed en masse for the other end of the pipe.

That’s when Mills pried up the grate over the storm drain on the opposite side of the road, climbed in, and shined his police flashlight at the petrified, unreachable siblings.

When the ducklings fled the beam of light, Hartwig managed to grab one.

“The rest just sat there,” Hartwig said. “They were making quite the ruckus and the mother duck was flying overhead, making sure we didn’t harm her little ducklings.”

After some frantic back and forth waddling and relentless coaxing by Hartwig, he was able to grab the ducklings and hand them to Mills, who was armed with a plastic Easter bucket.

Adam Hartwig, township manager, prepares to enter a pipe under the street in the Eagle Ridge section of Weatherburn Heights in Middlesex Township to retrieve a group of ducklings that fell through the grate over a catch basin. Submitted photo

“It became evident that we were not going to crawl after them to capture them,” Hartwig said.

Mills placed the fluffy orphans, one by one, into the bucket, which was handed up to the residents on the street.

The residents released the ducklings in a nearby backyard, where Mother was waiting.

“She was very concerned as to where her little ducklings were and if we were going to harm them,” Hartwig said.

The mother mallard waited with her ever-growing flock until the eighth baby was placed in the grass, and the entire family made a hasty escape.

Hartwig said while it is likely the ducklings fell through the grating, they might have climbed up the pipe, which leads to a retention pond.

He said due to strict state requirements on the size of storm drain grating, not much can be done to prevent a repeat of the incident.

“I certainly hope it doesn’t happen again, but if it does, Alex and I will go spelunking again,” Hartwig said.

The entire operation took about an hour.

Hartwig brushed off any suggestion that he is now the hero of the local mallard population.

“It’s just another day at the office,” he said.