A FAMILY of ducks have nested at an Oxford hospital, after mistaking an art installation for a pond.
The mother was discovered with her 11 ducklings at the Oxford Cancer Centre, at the Churchill Hospital, in Headington, on Friday.
A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said staff from the centre had discovered the ducklings and their mother close to the entrance.
They called the RSPCA to safely remove them to somewhere with real water.
RSPCA animal protection officer Dennis Lovell said he thought the mother might be a mallard who nests on the hospital site every year to have her ducklings.
He said: “She flies in every year, because she feels safe here.
“There are obviously very few predators here and it’s a lovely safe environment.
“We always remove them back to a safe environment.
“I think she has cottoned on now. We’re almost like her taxi service.”
Mr Lovell said he visited the hospital again yesterday to retrieve another family of ducks from the site.
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