Graham uses his crow to rescue eight ducklings

A paddle of tiny ducklings have been heroically rescued from a drain in Dundee after falling in while trailing their mother.

The eight ducklings were wandering down Gourdie Brae — near Camperdown Park — when they fell through the cracks in the grate and into the drain.

The mother duck was nearby accompanied by another three ducklings who had managed to avoid the obstacle.

Hero workman Graham Ellis jumped in to save the day after spotting a commotion at the side of the road while driving past. The 56-year-old stove installer assumed that the mother duck had walked over the drain, not thinking about the size of the cracks and the ducklings following behind were too small and fell in.

He said: “I was just driving along Gourdie Brae and saw a group of people around a drain looking in.

“We stopped and I took a look down there and there was a load of little ducklings peeking back out at me – it was brilliant.

“Luckily we had our ‘duck rescue equipment’ – I had two crow bars in the back of the van.

“We managed to lift the grate up and rescue them.

“There is something a bit ironic about a crow rescuing a duck. It took about 10 minutes because part of the drain was tarmacked over.”

Graham, who lives in Auchterhouse, said he headed back off to work and left the container full of ducklings safe in the hands of onlookers who had first alerted him to their plight.

“You hear about lions escaping from zoos in Germany and stuff like that but the best we can do is have ducks on the loose in the city,” he said.

Down the drain – but not for long