As the CEO of a telecommunications company, Shawn Schmidt has to keep a close eye on his bottom line. Survival of the fittest and all that. He doesn’t award himself a lot of time for diversions.

But when the Eagan dad suspected a mother duck could use a hand protecting her young from near-certain death, Schmidt almost jumped into a storm sewer to save them.

“I understand that the reason ducks have 10 babies is because only three or four survive, and that’s just the way things are,” Schmidt said. “But you have to give them a fighting chance.”

The case of the crying mallard drew quite a crowd to watch Schmidt’s impromptu act of heroism. Several bystanders, some of them children, even joined in to help.

Schmidt was driving toward his son’s youth baseball game recently when he spotted a distraught mother duck at the corner of Coachman and Yankee Doodle roads. “She was just going crazy,” he said.

Schmidt kept driving, but something nagged at him. Female ducks usually stick close to their young at this time of year, and the intersection separates two ponds, prime nesting area for fowl.

“I got about a block away, and it struck me with an overpowering feeling that something wasn’t right,” he said.

He turned back, parked his truck and got out, expecting the excited duck to scoot away. It didn’t.

“It just stood there,” Schmidt said.

The duck seemed to want to keep 10 feet between them, but when Schmidt stepped away, she followed.

Schmidt heard something that sounded like chirping. Suspecting what had happened, he stooped to peer into two storm drains, about 10 feet apart, lining the street. Sure enough, he could see what looked like bundles of ducklings down each drain.

“I probably saw seven ducks all huddled together in a ball, and I said, ‘Oh you got to be kidding me,’ ” he said.

Realizing he would be late for his son’s game if he stopped to help, he called his son and explained the situation, and asked him what he should do.

“He said, ‘Dad, you need to help the ducks,’ ” Schmidt recalled.

Schmidt removed the storm grates, but the ducklings were at least six feet down, too far to reach. He rushed home for a hockey stick, a bucket and a fishing net.

Soon, he was flat on his stomach, banging the tunnel bottom with the hockey stick to get the ducklings to run into the net. He scooped up two at a time and placed them in the bucket.

“I drew quite a bit of attention to myself. Everyone in the neighborhood must have wondered why the crazy guy was digging in the sewer,” he said.

A crowd began to form, with children cheering him on.

Just when it seemed his work was done, 9-year-old Jessica Citron and some of the others in the crowd heard more chirping across the street. There were more ducklings beneath a third sewer grate and more work to be done.

“Shawn had just told one of the other moms, ‘I have to tell myself I got all the ducks, so I’ll be able to sleep tonight’ … and that’s when some of the kids heard the squeak,” said Tracey Citron, Jessica’s mother.

Soon, the bucket was full with 15 baby ducks, and Schmidt was filthy.

“We had three people at all three sewer holes listening for more quacking to make sure there were no more down there,” he said.

Schmidt brought the bucket to a grassy area near one of the ponds, about 30 feet from the crowd, and left it resting on its side, so the tiny birds could enter and leave at will.

Suddenly, a mallard appeared. It made a call, and out from the bucket marched about five ducklings. The family waddled away, mom at the helm.

Before long, a second mallard appeared, squawked, and out marched another five ducklings. They walked off together, too.

A third mallard arrived and retrieved the last of the young.

Satisfied, Schmidt jumped back in his car and drove home to take a steaming shower and congratulate himself on his good deed of the day.