To have phoned the police over some stranded Ducklings on the M4 central reservation!?

[rosieposey]

So I get on the M4 today at junction 15 (i live locally so was only going to junc 16) and im speeding up nicely in the outside lane, it was really busy today when i notice a mother duck and 4 teeny tiny baby ducklings against the concrete central reservation all huddled there with cars going past at 80 plus mph I did not know what to do whereas my first instinct was to pull over and rescue them (Illegal and suicidal) i was so worried they would get flattened.

Anyway i phoned 999 because it was an emergency (sort of) and the call despatcher agreed with me that they were a hazard and, if god forbid they had started walking back out into the fast lane then it would have been bad for the little duck family but i was equally worried that some peoples instinct would have been to swerve or brake at high speed.

Anyway i went off at junc 16 to pick up DH and DS from softplay then drove back to the motorway and down to 15 again and they were gone :) The call despatcher said he was passing it on to highways straight away and it had been about half an hour since i had first noticed the Duck and ducklings till i drove past again so surely they were saved right? I think there would have been evidence if they hadnt made it but im all worried and a bit sad that i didnt know the outcome - i know you cant ring the police back to ask so what do you all think?

Half an hour was enough time for someone to be dispatched, stop the traffic on the motorway and scoop up mum and babies right?

Also i was going to ask any duck experts if ducks stay stationary when they are scared? Only because i thought afterwards that the motorway was so busy that there was no way she and her babies could have crossed those three lanes unless it was the dead of night and that maybe she had been there with her babies all night and morning because she was so terrified? Usually central reservations on motorways you can walk under but this was solid concrete and she just could not get any further ( nor i suspect get back to safety ) someone please tell me that she was saved and then i can get some sleep!

Ahhh that's a lovely outcome. You definitely did the right thing in calling about them. My mum & stepdad narrowly missed a horrendous accident when a pheasant stepped out onto the road in front of them while they were going 60mph. They had no choice but to hit it (devastating for my mum, the vegan animal-lover ) but it destroyed the underside of their car, which ended up getting written off. The roadside assistance bloke said that if they'd swerved to miss it, they would have hit the lorry in the other lane and been killed. Terrifying.

Smellslike - are they really bad parents? Not surprised really considering! She was one of those 'upright' ducks not like one you see on a lake - they look like Jemima Puddleduck iyswim? My BIL has some and tells me they are called 'Indian Runners'.

I guess because they are a domestic breed they would have been taken to a rescue place or a duck adoptee :) I cant think that the highways agency would have released them straight into the wild given that they almost certainly came from a home anyway.

Heart warming ending

Oh what a lovely ending.

This has made my day

Am actually crying - bloody pregnancy hormones. Lovely ending to the story :)

I was injured in a car crash with a herd of cows (black cows, unlit country road, middle of the night and no moon!), and my car was written off. If someone had only called the police earlier then they may have been taken off the road - the farmer already knew they'd escaped and would be on the road somewhere, and the police were on the lookout, but they were a long way from home and no one had called it in! I always call in hazards on the motorway, whether it's an animal or something fallen off a lorry, or whatever. And I always use 999 as it absolutely is an emergency - a swerve would possibly be deadly.

The cow got away with some grazes though (I checked!). Despite it rolling up my bonnet, crushing the roof onto me and my BF and then rolling off the side and crushing the door.

Op, so glad.

And yes, absolutely the right thing to do. The swan on the M1 was such a hazard that we later heard the travel news covering it.

Organic, so sorry and hope you are better now. I always contact people about stray sheep/ cows. The only time that has let me down was near Innisfree where the custom of the country is to let them wander. Highly perilous i thought initially but then it was explained to me as only being dangerous to outsiders, because the locals a)know to look out, b) go more slowly c) know whose the cows are so no problem in theft d) know that visitors' insurance will cover. I felt v v stupid.

Phew, that's so good, glad this story had a happy ending. Thanks for updating :-)

'The family of ducks were successfully removed from the motorway' and for the OP and the Highways Agency

I rang to report something that looked like a dead kangaroo on the M11 once, and the operator laughed her head off. It was actually a Christmas tree in a net that had fallen off a car. In my defence I had previously had to report a llama in the same area, so not completely impossible it would have been some wierd thing like a kangaroo ...

Haven't read all the thread, but noted the happy ending.

You were absolutely right to notify the police, the ducks were a potential hazard and could have caused an horrific accident. Any debris or potential hazard should always be phoned in. I've been in quite a few rolling road-blocks for similar hazards.

Woohoo!!!

Great news!!!

Anyone remember the hippo that escaped from a trailer after an accident on a motorway? Twas back in the 90s iirc, and the police/vets had to shut a section of road so they could corner the animal (Hilda?), which had taken refuge on the central reservation.

I can't remember the outcome but I do remember our office, who were following the story, bursting into a spontaneous rendition of Mud Mud Glorious Mud .

aww what a nice thread.

I once came to an abrupt halt whilst going round a roundabout near me because a mummy duck and her ducklings were waddling from the central grass bit to the edge of the road. Luckily the car in the next lane did too and no one hit me up the arse. That would have been one for the insurance claim form!

So pleased I checked back on this. Thanks for updating, OP. Am v pleased the ducks were rescued.