BANGOR — A quick-handed police officer who was dispatched to Stillwater Avenue Saturday to assist with a stranded family of ducks caught in the median near the Texas Roadhouse was able to catch the family of nine, according to Sgt. Larry Webber.

Bangor police Officer David Farrar learned at about 4:15 p.m. about the duck family from Maine Game Warden Jim Fahey, who was too far away to respond, the sergeant said.

“Warden Fahey said a family of ducks was stranded by the Texas Roadhouse and Papa John’s,” Webber said “When Farrar arrived, there was a mother duck and eight babies. They were located in the flower bed by the Texas Roadhouse sign.”

Several Texas Roadhouse employees were standing nearby to ensure the duck family were not in danger from cars entering the shopping plaza.

“He grabbed the mother duck and put her in a dog kennel and the little ducks followed her right in,” Webber said. “He transported them to the bog at the end of the Kittredge Road and released them.”

Ducks are common in the area and are known to nest in backyards. Some have even made homes at local retail stores, including in May 2011 when one mother mallard made her nest in the lawn and garden section of the Home Depot.

The visiting duck was nicknamed Paulette, Rosie or Daffy, depending on who was asked, and became an attraction for about a month as she sat on her eggs.

Home Depot employees fed and watered the mother duck up until the day she disappeared in June under the cover of darkness.

Another mother duck nested for a month in a flower box overlooking the Kenduskeag Stream footbridge in downtown Bangor in May-June 2012. She was fed and watered by local bank employee and hatched two healthy ducklings.

Just last year, a motorist noticed a mother duck making noise near a storm drain in Rockland, where her ducklings were stuck. Public works and treatment plant employees saved the baby animals from the drain.

The Bangor Police Department’s Facebook page had a little fun with Farrar’s duck rescue.

“Farrar feels that Officer [Jose] Vidaurri and Officer [Keith] Larby had received all too much attention for their wrangling of a horse recently,” the story about the duck rescue says. “He refused to brag about the save but muttered something about the water hazard making the save much more difficult and therefore obviously more dangerous. Thanks, Officer Farrar. Great work.”

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