SEVEN orphaned fluffy ducklings are having a quacking time at their new home in Fern Gore.
Kind-hearted John Drinkwater, of Lindadale Avenue, has taken the feathered friends under his wing after receiving a call from a concerned motorist in Preston who spotted the baby ducks beside their mother, who had been killed by a passing car.
John, who is also chairman of the Fern Gore Residents’ Association, was asked if he could collect the ducklings and put them on the lodge near to his home by the caller, who had got his details from the telephone directory – to which he agreed.
But when he arrived to collect them, they were just days old and would have been unable to survive on their own.
John spent hours researching how to care for the ducklings, sourcing food from a local farm and creating an area for them in his back garden.
He said: "I didn’t know anything about them so I looked on the Internet and found out what I had to do.
"They have grown every day and are about six inches tall now. There were nine of them but sadly two have died.
"Each night I bring them in from their run and put them in their cardboard box with a light to keep them warm, but they make a lot of noise.
"They also got out and ran around the house a couple of times.
"In a few weeks’ time, when they are big enough, I will try them on the lodge but at the moment their wings aren’t big enough. I haven’t named any of them because I can’t tell one apart from the other."
