We’re used to welcoming new-borns who then go home to be cared for by their loving families. But this week the Trust said goodbye to some very different new arrivals – a brood of ducklings.
Every year, the same tagged duck pays a special visit to the University Hospital of North Tees to lay a clutch of eggs in one of the courtyards.
The unnamed visitor returned this April and staff were soon treated to the sight and sound of a cute brood of tiny ducklings waddling around the courtyard.
Staff working nearby helped the flying-mum and her new arrivals by providing a paddling pool and a supply of birdseed.
In order to protect the duck and her brood, staff arranged for them to be carefully rehomed to a more suitable environment nearby, complete with a natural water source and abundant food.
Hospital domestic Christopher Owens-Hunt is always enamoured by the Trust’s flying ‘maternity patient’. This year, he managed to take a few photographs without getting in the way of the flying family. He said: “The duck comes back every year, the second week of April.
“She’s like clockwork. It was lovely to see her again. But the family is safer now where there’s more food and proper lakes to swim in.
“But my word, those ducklings are incredibly cute!”
