‘I couldn’t believe it’: 12 adorable ducklings hatch in Northampton woman’s garden

A Northampton woman had an huge shock when she discovered a duck had picked her garden as her chosen place to hatch a dozen ducklings.

Sam Walpole, who lives in West Hunsbury overlooking the lake in Ladybridge Drive, first saw her new resident on a Sunday evening back in April.

The 44-year-old, who is a keen gardener, regularly went out to check on the duck, who was named 'Daffy' by Sam's niece.

When she first arrived Sam was worried Daffy might be injured so started to research online what the creature was up to.

Sam said: “Out of the corner of my eye I saw that a duck had flown into my garden and landed in the trellises.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’ve lived here for nine years and it has never happened before

“I thought at first she might be injured. I kept checking on her and she was still there.

“She made a nest near the border so then I thought she’d definitely be staying there.”

Just as Sam imagined, the duck stayed put in the garden for a total of 26 days and even laid and hatched a dozen eggs.

Sam added: “When I saw eggs I thought ‘wow, this is exciting’.

“But it was a shock and it caused worry too because I knew I’d need to get them back to the lake.

“The hatching is meant to take 24 hours as it’s a gradual process but I’m not sure how long it actually took.

“I went outside to put the washing on the line, she had wandered out and then suddenly I saw a couple of ducklings with her.

“They were dry, fluffy little things so I think they’d hatched the day before.

“Originally I only counted eight eggs but she must have made the nest deeper than I thought as there were 12 ducklings.”

Sam knew that Daffy and her new babies needed to get back to the water as soon as possible, especially as she was concerned about cats and magpies in her garden.

But the lake is situated at the front of Sam’s house with no access from her back garden, so on Saturday (May 16) she had to come up with an inventive way to get them to the water.

“It was a bit of a nightmare moving them,” she continued.

“I live on my own so I couldn’t get anyone else to help.

“Every time I got near the mother duck she just went to protect the ducklings, so in the end I opened the back door and the front door.

“They wandered into the living room so I quickly shut the back door.

“Then I sat out the front and waited for them to come out the front door. They kept trying to go to the back door but they came to the front in the end.”

The whole process took around an hour and ended with Sam walking the ducklings a few yards over the road from her house back to the lake.

“The dad duck came over to them when they were back at the lake, which was nice as they were a proper family,” Sam added.

“They waddled round on the edge for a bit before sitting in the shallow bit for a while. Then they just swam off.”

During the time that Daffy was in the garden, Sam had been keeping friends and family up to date with what was happening.

Now they have their own theories as to why the duck chose Sam’s garden as the place to hatch her eggs.

“A lot of my friends have said ‘she must know that you’re a caring person and that you would look after her,’ Sam said.

“I love animals, I’m a vegetarian and of course I would look after her.

“And also I’m a keen gardener. I love gardening and my garden has a lot of plants and foliage, so she may have thought my garden was the best option.”

Although Sam’s aquatic visitor was unusual and unexpected, she says it has reignited her love of birds.

“It’s been brilliant and it’s just been great to have this interest,” she added.

“Since she has been gone, I have got my bird feeder up and I have got back into watching the birds.”

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