We Energies worker rescues ducklings trapped in storm sewer

A We Energies employee’s quick thinking and instincts are responsible for a unique family reunion.

Adam Ditter, a We Energies natural gas mechanic, recently helped rescue 10 tiny ducklings by climbing into a storm sewer in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Ditter had just finished installing a new natural gas meter at a home in the area when he noticed someone standing outside a parked car and staring into a storm sewer.

The person was Ashley Jared, an Appleton woman who was driving through the area with her mother. Jared stopped the car after seeing a duck anxiously pacing around the sewer grate.

“Apparently, I got out so fast I didn’t even close my door, so that’s why Adam noticed me,” Jared said. “I looked in (the sewer), and there was 10 baby ducks.”

10 minutes, 10 ducklings, one lasting memory

Ditter showed true pluck by heading over and lifting the grate off before carefully lowering himself into the storm sewer. Jared stood by as an eggs-tra pair of hands, assisting with the reunion by gently returning each rescued baby one-by-one to their very relieved mom.

“I started picking them up, and as soon as I picked up a couple of them, the rest all went to the other side of the sewer,” Ditter said. “I was actually worried that I was going to step on them when I had to move over.”

“It was a very short 10 minutes, but a lot happened in that 10 minutes,” Jared said. “It’s 10 minutes that I’ll remember, and I’m sure that the mom duck will remember.”

A We Energies employee lowers himself into a storm sewer in a roadway next to a sidewalk.

A We Energies employee standing in a storm drain hands ducklings to a woman kneeling on a sidewalk .

A We Energies employee places a duckling on a strip of grass next to a sidewalk.

A woman watches as an adult duck and 10 ducklings walk up a grass lawn next to a sidewalk.

This isn’t Ditter’s first time making a splash in the duck-saving world. A week before rescuing the Little Chute ducklings, he brought another group of ducklings to safety after they fell into a storm sewer near downtown Appleton.

“You could see how anxious the mother duck was wandering around, waiting for her babies,” Ditter said. “As soon as they were reunited, they all took off together. You could tell that mom was relieved that she got all of her babies back.”

Ditter has plenty of experience caring for animals. He grew up on a farm in northeast Wisconsin, and has owned his own livestock farm since 2020. This year, he began raising ducks for the first time.