Volunteer ‘duck wardens’ are helping a group of mallards safely waddle across town after they chose a parking lot as the best place to roost with their ducklings.
15 citizens have answered the duck call in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, rotating shifts to personally escort 20 birds to the town center every evening.
The birds start the 15-minute journey from The Cod Beck river at around 8:30pm and head to the market square car park where they sleep until around 4:30am the next morning.
Mystery surrounds the reasons why the ducks make the daily trip, but some believe the mothers feel safer sleeping with their ducklings away from riverside predators.
Emma-Jayne Hutchings, one of the volunteers acting as a crossing guard, thinks it might be because the cobblestones they sleep on are warm. Whatever the reason, it has now become a learned behavior.
“It is really heartwarming and adorable escorting the ducks on their walk,” the 48-year-old business advisor told SWNS news agency.
“You know whenever they are leaving (the river) as they all start quacking like a call for arms then they march up in two battalions.
Once the waterfowl have reached their parking lot, the volunteers place traffic cones around them and watch over until the town falls silent at around 11pm on weekdays or sometimes as late as 2:30am on the weekend, when there may be ‘drunk revelers’ heading home from the pub that adjoins the car park.
Perhaps best of all, Emma-Jayne says it brings the town in northern England together.
“It has brought a wealth of community spirit with all parts getting involved to make sure the ducks are safe.
“We have been donated high-visibility jackets to wear. One local pub, the Mowbray Arms provides us with cups of tea or coffee whilst we watch over the them.
“It has been a really nice way to meet like-minded people, who have since become friends.”
The mallards first started making the trek last year and, unsupervised, it led to four being killed whilst crossing the road.
As a result, Jodie Wood set up a Facebook page and now organizes volunteers along with Emma to keep them safe.
“I made a Facebook group asking if anyone wanted to help me with the ducks and it got lots of responses.”
The ducks begin their evening adventures in mid-June and continue doing so until the beginning of December.
The volunteers say they don’t encourage the ducks to make the walk. They only look after them while they make the decision on their “own terms”.
“They start walking at about 8:30pm and we walk with them and wait to see where they want to go—and put the cones around them,” said Jodie.
“Sometimes we get drunk revelers trying to touch them, mess with them, and walk through them. But 99 percent of the time it’s fine and people just come to chat and take pictures.”
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She has lived in the town all her life but has never seen this animal behavior before.
“Something is scaring them away.
“There are a lot of rodents who linger in the area. We think there is a mink down there. It could also be a cat or a fox, but we aren’t 100 percent sure.”
So far, the volunteer group has tallied zero fatalities on their watch, since helping the ducks to safely navigate the route.
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“We are lucky to have such a great following and so much support.”
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