Mother duck and 14 ducklings escorted to safety in Uckfield

A mother mallard duck and 14 baby ducklings had to be escorted to safety across the Eastbourne Road near Uckfield.

The mum hatched 15 ducklings on Thursday (April 14) morning at the Barley Mow Park - this was her third year in a row nesting in the area.

Trevor Weeks MBE, founder of East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS), said: “Its normal for ducks to nest in gardens as they are generally safer for them than nesting by ponds and streams. Once the young are about 24 -48 hours old then generally them walk them to the pond or stream they want to go to.

"Unfortunately they don’t always plan how they are going to walk them there so we often have to step in and give them a hand. You also have to be careful you don’t force them in the wrong direction or take them to the wrong pond, because as soon as you have gone they are likely to up and walk to whether ever they want to head to, and could still get run over again."

At 8am on Friday (April 15) morning, the mother duck decided to try walking the ducklings, so residents called in help from WRAS.

Residents said one of the ducklings was sat behind a plant pot and was looking quite weak so rescuers had to pick it up and take the struggle duckling into care, but the East Sussex WRAS said the mum and the 14 others seemed quite healthy, alert and ready for the journey.

The pond the mum takes her ducklings to is about a quarter of a mile away across the other side of the Eastbourne Road in a field.

Trevor Weeks said: “Attempting to catch her and move her is risky as she could fly off abandoning her young and leaving us with the job of hand rearing them, and no mum wants to be separated from their young, so we always when safe to do so, try to escort the mum and ducklings to safety."

Trevor and fellow rescuer Ellie Langridge drove to the scene and working with the residents of the park slowly escorted the mum and ducklings out of the park onto the busy Eastbourne Road.

The traffic was stopped whilst mum and duckling walked along a short section of the road before crossing over and into a field on the opposite side of the road.

Once across the road safely, the mum had a few difficulties getting through the stock fencing, as modern stock fencing has more narrow gaps at the bottom which makes it difficult for wildlife to get through including mums and ducklings.

Eventually she managed to get through two section of fencing and into the field where the pond is located.

Rescuers monitored her all the way to the pond to ensure mum and all the ducklings stayed safe.

The 15th duckling which had to be rescued is now at East Sussex WRAS Casualty Centre.

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