It’s not unusual for a mother with kids in tow to take a stroll through the library. Many bookworms fondly remember such childhood visits.
But it is unusual when that mother is a duck and she has five ducklings all following in a row as they march through a British university library.
Employees at the University of Nottingham’s George Green Library were treated to just that sight recently after open doors let in more than a cool breeze.
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“It had been very hot that week, so we had left our doors open for some extra air movement,” Emma Halford-Busby said, according to Good News Network.
Apparently the duck walked in with her brood and they took a tour, “walked around our atrium for a while, mom in front and ducklings in a line behind. Mom was totally calm and unflustered.”
A worker gently herded them toward the door, and they marched back out again.
“As they walked towards our other entrance, one of our staff gently ushered them through the gates and back outside,” Halford-Busby said.
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“You often come across ducks in seemingly odd places around campus, but that was definitely the oddest place I’ve seen them,” Stuart Warren, the senior library adviser, told BBC.
Halford-Busby added that the cute sighting “did bring some excitement into an otherwise peaceful evening.”
Viewers chimed in with a range of responses, from sharing duck-related stories to taking the opportunity to quack their own jokes.
“They all had overdue books, and had to pay off their ‘bills,'” Glenn Johnson wrote.
“Hey guys social distancing please,” Jusally Tulod wrote.
“They say start reading to them young,” Sally Finney added.
It’s not just ducks across the pond who are part of this phenomenon, either.
Gary Allen High School in Ontario, Canada, has a long-standing tradition with a local duck who takes an annual tour through the school buildings to get to a creek.
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“At least once a year, a mother and her brood of ducklings make their way from her nesting grounds, through a high school to a nearby creek,” CBC posted on Facebook in 2019.
“Staff have helped guide the family on their journey for the last 10 years.”
Have you ever seen something like this?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.