MY WIFE and I were on our way to Festival Park Ebbw Vale when going along the main road above Cwm we noticed the traffic was moving slowly for no apparent reason. Within a couple of seconds we realised a duck was waddling down the road with her ducklings. They had nowhere to go due to the high wall down the side of the road.

When we arrived at the shopping centre, we went down to the Owl Sanctuary to report the incident. When we explained the situation to a lady at the reception, she informed Malcolm, a member of staff who with another colleague grabbed a large net and carrier and immediately went after the stricken family.

After we had done our shopping I went down to the sanctuary to see what happened. I met Malcolm and as I was a member of the Gwent Ornithological Society I was thrilled to hear he had retrieved the duck and her six ducklings. He escorted me to a unit where he had placed the stressed out family in a cage to calm down.

It was great to see the family safely together with the ducklings snuggled around their mother with one sitting on her back. He said he would leave them there to settle down and then take them to a rescue centre in Newport to be released in a pond.

I left a donation and thanked Malcolm and his staff for an excellent job.

Mr and Mrs Evans Greenmeadow Torfaen