Another Duckling Rescue

After receiving two calls today about another lone duckling in the river, I was forced to investigate.

Sure enough this was a repeat of a few days ago when another duckling was in the same spot as the previous one, going around all day on it's own. I then heard from a couple on the river that they saw a mother duck yesterday with 6 ducklings that were headed downstream.

This one is only a few days old and not related to the one I picked up the other day.
Anyway, I tried to locate the mother and brood without success, so made the decision to rescue the lone duckling this evening. It was tricky and the river stones are incredibly slippery, however I managed to catch the lively duckling and planned the same tactic as before.

This time I introduced the duckling to Disco and her brood in the aviary, fearful of it being rejected and possibly attacked I had to watch what would happen. I needn't have worried, because Disco immediately went into defend mode when I put the duckling on the ground, and accepted it without a problem.

However the largest of her brood had a peck at the new addition which worried me a bit but this soon stopped.
The age and size difference is very obvious, but Disco is taking it in her stride, as the pics show. She is turning out to be some Mother !