Three cheers for Lt. Gene Jankowski and the city police force for averting disaster on Main Street this morning. With the help of an unflinching fellow officer, Jankowski halted four lanes of traffic on East Main Street out front of the police station so that a mother duck and her ten ducklings could safely cross.
The feathered family emerged from Austin Park when they were spotted and followed to the curb. Jankowski held off traffic while his colleague — I apologize for failing to get the officer's name — kept the ducks on course. Without pause, the lot of them dropped into the street and waddled across and into the cool waters of the Tonawanda behind the courthouse. There they were reunited with papa mallard (you can see him leading the crew in the photo to the left here).
Jankowski told me after that this happens about twice a year, and if the police don't act fast, the questing ducks would most likely cause chaos on Main Street, if not an outright accident as drivers swerve all over to avoid crushing the little beasts.
"They don't wait," he said. "They make a bee-line across the road."
They most certainly did. And on a day when the temperature has already hit 90 degrees, who could blame them? I had to keep myself from jumping into the creek and getting my feathers wet.
