(CNN)It was like a scene out of "Make Way for Ducklings" on Tuesday on a rainy street in Washington. CNN Situation Room correspondent Brian Todd and photojournalist Khalil Abdallah were on their way to interview a legal analyst on L Street NW when they happened on a brood of baby ducks causing a stir. Abdallah reports the ducklings and their mom had crossed heavily trafficked street, and some restaurant patrons stopped on the sidewalk to corral them. A man gave up his umbrella for the cause "while the mom was going crazy." "One duckling tried to run back to the street but they caught it in time," Abdallah said. The mother duck followed the umbrella while pedestrians stopped cars on L street for them to safely cross the road. The Washington Post reports the pedestrians took the bird family to "a more enclosed grassy area" at 16th and L streets NW. (Yes, baby ducks warrant two national news stories.) "We thought it was an extraordinary situation," Todd said. "You see pigeons, you see squirrels, you see the occasional raccoon in the D.C. area, and ... you  see deer ... We've never seen anything like this in the middle of town."
Bystanders stopped to rescue a lost brood of ducklings in D.C. Tuesday .
CNN's Brian Todd and Khalil Abdallah paused to capture the scene .