Watch adorable mother duck and ducklings rescue in Stone Cross

East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) was called out on Friday (April 17) to the family of ducks who were found wondering around in Eden Close, Stone Cross.

The mother duck was seen by concerned residents waddling off the main road into Eden Close where she found herself trapped, surrounded by houses and fences.

So four rescuers came to her aid. Two ambulances were sent to the scene where the volunteers monitored the duck’s behaviour and decided to shepherd them to Shinewater Park.

They decided against trying to catch the mother duck and ducklings, as she could abandon her young and fly off.

WRAS operations manager Trevor Weeks MBE said, “Its always difficult to know where they want to go, and you have to be very careful that you don’t just move them to the wrong location, or when your back is turned they will up and walk again.

“After monitoring them for a while it became clear which direction she wanted to head in, so started their 0.6 mile walk to safety.”

The first hurdle was trying to get them to go back out the close in the opposite direction to what they wanted to go.

This was slow but eventually they made it onto Adur Drive before turning down the footpath into Adur Park and towards the railway line.

Rescuer Ellier Langridge said, “It was amazing to see her change of pace once at the railway tunnel. She suddenly sped up running forward, clearly realising she was on the right route.”

Once onto Hadlow Avenue, the mum and ducklings walked along the pavement dipping in and out of front gardens clearly wanting to turn right. Which she was finally able to do once on Larkspur Drive.

Ellie said, “This section of the walk was going to be the most problematic as it is a bus route and the pavements aren’t very wide in places.”

Crossing the junction with Rotherfield Avenue was difficult and cars had to be stopped whilst the made their way across.

“Once we past the Meadows Nursery School in Larkspur Drive, without prompting her to she walked straight across the grass towards the stream,” said Trevor.

All the ducklings one-by-one moved through the vegetation, jumping of rocks and ducking under brambles to get down to the water’s edge.

Trevor said, “It was so nice to see them in the water and in a neat little line they all weaved their way through the reeds to the safety of the water. From there she can easily and safety reach Shine Water Lake if she wants to.

The rescue took approximately 45 minutes.

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