Yesterday a lost duckling was found at the end of the pier. It was picked up by a tourist and dropped into the river beside the Swans and ducks. Fortunately I happened to arrive as it happened. I knew from experience that it would be attacked and most likely killed in a matter of minutes. My only option was to pick it up and look for it's mother who must have just hatched it that day. I spent an hour looking along the riverside to no avail, and took it home to the brooder box.
After a while getting warmed up, it started eating and became lively, and today I contacted a few Trust members to keep a look out for a duck with newly hatched ducklings. Within a short while, I got a call from Ian Pollock who spotted a frantic duck near the harbour entrance trying to encourage some ducklings who were trapped in a Lobster creel on top of the harbour wall. I knew this was the lost ducklings mum and brought it down to the frantic mum.
Meanwhile Ian went over to the creels and manged to free the 4 trapped ducklings, one of which is a yellow cutie, and we dropped them all into the harbour to be reunited with their mum !
Incredibly it was the same mum who produced the 4 yellow ducklings in March - the ones I kept for 9 weeks and released only a few weeks ago. This was a good satisfying day on the river !
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