Yesterday we got a knock on our front door from our neighbours down in Brookside, Furneux Pelham.  "Come and have a look at this".  There against the front door we saw this...

Here is the a zoom in...

It was a female Mallard with six little chicks.  They had obviously been wandering and got a little lost. 

Now leaving them there looked dangerous as the only way out would be onto the road.  So we attempted to move them.  Armed with a big fishing net unfortunately the mother managed to escape!  So with the help of local children we gathered up the 6 chicks into a basket and brought them to the nearest pond with plenty of long grass and reeds to shelter them two doors away.  After we all withdrew from the garden about 8 minutes later mum turned up circling the area and was re-united with her chicks!