The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Lockdown has been quackers for a Holbeach family after they took to helping ducks.
Cheryl Potts and her daughters Willow (12) and Rowan Ravenscroft (11) have been helping nurse some of the town’s wild animals back to health.
It all started in the first lockdown after one of the family cats brought a Mallard back to their Hallgate home.
“Luckily it wasn’t injured, but we couldn’t see the mother duck anywhere and had no idea where it came from and didn’t want it just waddling around.
“So we’d thought we’d look after it and that’s what we did.”
The family even bought a pond for ‘Waddles’ but he was particularly at home in the house itself.
They also taught him to fly at Holbeach Cemetery.
“We’d take him there and the kids would run up and down and he’d start following them and flapping his wings.
“When he was able to fly we knew it was time to release him down to the pond and we did a big releasing day.
“We used to go down once a day and check on him and he’d waddle over.
“Even now he still recognises us and comes over to us and allows us to stroke him and feed from the hand.”
That’s not the end of it though. On one of their visits to Waddles they noticed another duck was limping and asked permission from Holbeach Parish Council to look after ‘Puddles’ who they’re continuing to nurse back to health.
They were told about a third duck in Holbeach ‘Ruffles’ suffering from ‘wet feather’ which means the feathers lose their waterproof ability.
After a few weeks of rehabilitation with the Potts family he was released back into the wild last week.
Another duck had to be rescued due to litter becoming stuck around its neck.
“It’s been really great having them around,” Cheryl said. “We’ve cats but they don’t seem to mind the ducks waddling around at all.
“After looking after the first duck in the first lockdown I never thought we’d be in the same situation this time.
“There’s a few people in and around Holbeach who look out for the ducks, look after them and feed them.
“They’re part of the town.”
