Payton and his cousin Jonathan were seeing just how fast they could dribble their basketball when all of a sudden, they heard something coming from the storm drains Saturday afternoon.

“I just looked down and I was like ‘mom there are baby ducks,'” 10-year-old Payton told us. “I just paused there for about five seconds and I just thought how could that have happened?”

The two headed to their neighbor to give him the heads up.

“I didn’t really realize what was happening until Payton told me there were baby ducks in the drain,” Eugene “Butch” Carrier said.  

Knowing they had to do something, they stepped up to save the day.

It was a team effort from residents and the Philipsburg Borough. They used a butterfly net to rescue the babies and got them back to their frantic mom.

“It made you feel kind of good to see the little things hopping around back with their mother,” Carrier smiled.

Sadly one of the six ducklings didn’t make it. Payton and Jonathan wanted to do something special and created a memorial in the backyard.

They now have quite the story to tell.

“I was very happy,” Payton said. “I kept going over to watch the babies go to the mom.”

After spending hours rescuing ducks in danger, they can proudly call themselves the heroes of the neighborhood.