Ducklings rescued from sewer using a recording of their quacking mother

Two ducklings who became stuck in a sewer were rescued when quick-thinking workers coaxed them back into daylight by using an iPad recording of their mother's quack. Mark Hyde said he raised the alarm after a duck came to the door of their holiday home last week in Dorset quacking for help. He said: “My wife and I were staying in Burton Bradstock for a week’s holiday and we were made aware of the impending tragedy by the mother duck quacking loudly at our cottage door.
“We went out to investigate and saw the mother with eight ducklings which were only a few days old. The mother wouldn’t leave the area. We heard a squeaking noise coming from a nearby drain cover and it became apparent a duckling was trapped in the storm drain.” Mr Hyde said they couldn’t move the drain cover so he contacted Wessex Water, hoping someone could use a key to remove it. Within an hour, Wessex Water sewerage technicians Brendan Sutcliffe and Keith Carter were on the scene.
When they looked inside the manhole, they found the two ducklings had already crept away from the manhole and down the drain. But they cleverly lured the pair back towards the exit using their high-tech equipment to record the mother's quacking, lowering the tablet into the drain so the youngsters could hear it properly. As they ventured near, they were then caught using a plastic kitchen colander and a badminton racket.
Mr Hyde said: “The mother duck and the other ducklings were relaxing in the rear garden when this was happening, but when the two siblings were reunited with them the excitement was incredible and was actually very touching. The ducklings were scooped into a cardboard box and taken down to the nearby stream with the mother in tow, before they all swam away,” he said. “It was a very happy ending and a great story of a community coming together to reunite a lovely little family.”