Peep peep!

A leisurely start saw us moving on down the Staffs & Worcs Canal at about 9am for Stourport.

When we got to the basin there, we needed to negotiate several locks, but in one of the first ones, we had some company:

Locks are not the safest of places for tiny ducklings that can't fly out like mum can. The turbulent waters and strong suction of the water emptying through the lower paddles could easily suck the little things under, but mum somehow got them all from the front of the boat to the back, where it was a bit safer, and I watched over them carefully to ensure that I didn't swamp them with the wash from our propellor.

In due course I was able to move out of the lock and they all followed:
After a stop at the BW services, we set off again across the basin, past the impressive clock tower and the gin palaces, for the series of locks that would take us down onto the river assuming that we wouldn't see mum & ducklings again now that they had the big basin to explore.
I negotiated the tortuous route through the basin to the narrow locks at the far end and waited while Barbara set the lock. Just as it filled up and she opened the gate, what should I see but a mother duck and eight little ducklings swimming into the lock ahead of me! I presumed it was the same family as she seemed to know what she was doing and how to cope in locks, but I still took lots of care as we descended two more locks.

In the last lock before the river, the water flowed over the lock gate and as I moved the boat slowly into the lock, mum and ducklings were nowhere to be seen, so we presumed they'd jumped over the end of the lock into the river.

On looking around the river side of the lock gates though, I spotted one tiny duckling trapped by the gate under the waterfall coming over the gates. Barbara saved it from getting drowned by opening a paddle and lowering the water level, but it didn't want to leave the lock gate and seemed to be trying to climb out, which it would never do as it was a 6' sheer wall.

Fearing it would drown or get squashed by our boat, I grabbed the net off our roof and taped it to the boat hook to lengthen it, and scooped the soggy little thing out of the river, hoping we'd find mum.

No such luck, mum had disappeared, so we were lumbered with a tiny, cold duckling with very sodden down. So, it's now in the bath peeping loudly for its mum, but relatively warm and dry, and taking occasional bits of food from me. Hopefully, we can repatriate it with its family when we return through Stourport tomorrow.
And this is our mooring in Worcester, nice enough though we are a bit close to the railway bridge, but it's not nearly as noisy as a road bridge would be.
All for now.