I remeber a news story sometime within the last year (or 18 months) of
a policeman directing traffic who was distracted by a duck who kept
nipping at him and tried to get his attention. Finally he followed the
duck over to a sewer/grate to see ducklings stuck...I am trying to use
this for a class I am teaching on behavior and CAN NOT remember where
I read the story...salon or CNN..I can't see m to find it..

Hello boudicca

Nice story! And here it is:

"Hey! (Quack) Over here! (Quack)" 
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/07/13/duck010713

There's a  bit more detail in this report:
http://www.earthfuture.com/econews/back_issues/01-09.asp


The search which led me to the CBC story was:
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=policeman+duck+ducklings+2001+OR+vancouver+-%22mrs+mallard%22&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I arrived at this story in a roundabout way.
First I found this reference in google groups to a similar incident in
1997:
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=policeman+duck+ducklings+rescue+OR+rescued&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=3371E90E.4998%40worldnet.att.net&rnum=2

Then searching for that 1997 story led me to the 2001 incident in
Vancouver:
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=policeman+duck+ducklings+1997&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

Hope this helps! Please feel free to ask for clarification if you have
a query.

Good luck with the class - Leli

Wow!!! wonderful, now I can use this tidbit for my class.
Thank you..

Glad I could help! Thanks