A mother duck and her ducklings are happily back quacking around Fort McMurray, Alta., after Mounties rescued the baby birds from the depths of a concrete storm sewer.

Wood Buffalo RCMP got the call on Sunday just before 8 a.m. MT.

The officers opened up a manhole cover and climbed down the narrow pipe to extract the baby birds. (Wood Buffalo RCMP) A flock of clumsy ducklings had fallen into a sewer near the intersection of Ash Way and Lodgepole Way on the city's north side.

When police arrived, they found the mother duck on the street, but there was no sign of her flock.

But then the officers heard 'quack, quack, quack' echoing out of the bottom of the sewer.

One of the officers removed the manhole cover, climbed inside and shimmied down the narrow pipe to save the distressed ducklings.

All seven ducklings were retrieved and reunited with their mother, a feat described as a "valiant rescue" by Cpl.Erika Laird.

"It's definitely not an everyday occurrence for us. It's an entertaining story for everybody to share around the office, that's for sure," Laird said. "It's not uncommon for officers to help with animal rescues or help out injured animals, but it's not every day that they end up down a sewer to do it."