A HANDFUL of adorable duckings which hatched in a hanging basket outside of an office have been safely led to water by their mother.

Staff at Fleetshield, in Earls Colne Business Park, noticed one of the baskets outside the office was missing its flowers.

Upon a closer look, they found the basket had eggs inside which belonged to a mallard.

David Waterman, who works for Fleetshield, said he and his colleagues decided to set up a camera so they could follow the process.

As they were becoming attached to the mother duck, they decided to nickname her Felicity.

The 49-year-old said: “We then decided we should sort out a soft landing zone in readiness for the jump to find water.”

Once the eggs hatched, the ducklings would have to jump from the basket to the ground before going on a search for a new home.

Mr Davidson, from Colchester, and members of the team made a soft blanket with hay underneath for the ducklings to fall on to prevent them from being badly injured or worse.

He said: “Over the last five weeks or so we’ve had excitement and absolute pleasure to witness Mother Nature at her best.

“We all had great fun keeping updated on the footage and on Tuesday all ten eggs hatched and were led to water by their incredible mum to meet their dad, which we called Shawn.

“We had a little play on the word Fleetshield hence Felicity and Shawn.”

The ducklings waddled their way to a pond on the golf course at the Essex, Golf and Country Club in Earls Colne.

Mr Waterman added: “It’s been an absolute joy to witness this so close up, nature is just so magical.”

He documented the ducklings’ arrival into the world on camera as well as their jump out of the basket.

He followed them down to the nearby pond to take some final snaps of the feathered family in their new - more natural - habitat.

Mr Waterman added: “All the photos and videos shows the magical 30 minutes we had on Tuesday and hope it shows the incredible journey they made.

“It certainly brightened up our day.”