#Operationmallard 3 lovelies! Let me tell you how stressful Dad's morning was! Yesterday (21st of June) lots of the ducklings hatched, but Mrs Mallard showed no desire to leave the nest and take the family down to the water. Dad could only count about 6 ducklings at most.
It might have been that the last 2 or 3 eggs hadn't hatched, or she just didn't fancy leaving yet but either way, they all settled down by evening and stayed the night. Dad got up just before 4am, thinking she'd want to leave at dawn, like last year.
But no. She stayed put. Dad waited. Then, to his horror, a group of workmen arrived right at the base of the building and started up a generator! He knew the ducklings would have to go to the water soon, so he went to speak to them...
Only to arrive at the elevators and discover that all 3 were out of service due to maintenance! Nine floors up, he didn't want to go all the way down and back up again by the stairs as it would leave the nest unattended too long.
So he went back to his flat to phone down to the main desk in the lobby to ask if they'd warn the workers below about the imminent ducket arrival, and to ask if maybe they could move the generator round the corner so it wasn't so loud...
... only to discover that Mrs Mallard was clearly about to leave the nest! He whipped out his phone, filmed her leaving and counted the 9 ducklings as they plopped out onto the balcony. He had to get the ducklings down then and there!
As he had before, he went out, got shouted at by the momma duck (and she sprayed him with poo!) who then took off as he started to load the ducklings into the ducket. But many of them ran off to hide behind planters. He found 8, but one was missing...
Cue five minutes of FRANTIC searching of the balcony. Mrs Mallard went off to the water and he was so worried the bond was going to be broken due to the generator noise, but the ducket was still amplifying their peeps, and they'd had a lot of bonding time since hatching.
He FINALLY found the last duckling who'd managed to get around one of the barriers and was literally 2 inches from the drop of death! Dad (thank goodness he had military training - I'd be dead of stress by then) scooped them up, put them in the bucket and started lowering.
Mrs Mallard came back to circle the bucket mid-air, quacking loudly, as Dad was shouting down to the workmen to try to get some help, but the generator was so loud they couldn't hear him as he was so far up! Can you imagine?!
But thankfully, one of the blokes down there did hear him, and looked pretty confused for a few moments! Then he clocked what was happening, grabbed the bucket when it got to the ground and followed Dad's instructions to let the ducklings out.
Poor Dad was stranded on the balcony, helpless, as Mrs Mallard was unable to use her previous route to the water due to the barriers and workers down there. She went a different route and was briefly separated from the gaggle of ducklings who started to wander off without her!
Dad was hollering guidance to the bloke below who started to corral them back together, then a woman on a bike stopped to help and eventually the family got to the water. My poor Dad was a bit of a wreck! I was, just when he was telling me what happened!
Anyway, all's well that ends well! They swam off, Dad saw they were all together and safe and then he could breathe again! Turns out the lifts were only out of service for 15 minutes - just happened to be the most crucial 15 minutes of the day!
Dad cleaned himself up and went to go and thank the bloke below but the work had finished and they'd gone! So if anyone knows a guy who did some work on Salford Quays early this morning who helped out with #operationmallard 3 - please connect us!
And to think we were expecting this one to be easy as the weather was fine and there was no wind! Nope. Even more dramatic than the others! Dad made the decision to go ahead and hope the men below would help, and I am so glad they did.
So even though Dad's stand-by helpers didn't get called in (they would have taken too long to arrive at that time in the morning), a bloke just doing his job at the base of the building stepped up. There are good people in the world. And now we can all relax!
... And now you can see why I told you they were all safe first thing this morning! I am a monster when it comes to writing fiction, but to tell you about all that happened WITHOUT knowing they were all okay? That would have been too cruel! Lots of love to you all x
Oh, just wanted to add that there will be a video, but probably in about a week as I am about to start a large audiobook narration gig. Dad has sent me all sorts of video chunks, but I need time to sort through them to make something with a cohesive narrative like the others.
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