Thirsk’s 20 Mallards Command Nightly Human Escort, Cones, and Pub Tea

Mallards in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have commandeered the town car park as their nightly roost, with 15 hi-vis volunteers escorting 20 ducks from Cod Beck River at 8:30pm. Trendy queries like “why do ducks cross the road” and “mallard sleep habits” are answered as humans deploy traffic cones, fend off pub revelers, and sip donated tea. Emma-Jayne Hutchings insists, “It is really heartwarming and adorable escorting the ducks on their walk,” as the battalions quack their march to the cobblestones.
After the nightly quack parade and cone fortification, Thirsk locals have turned duck security into a social event—complete with a pub-provided caffeine ration and zero duck casualties since the escort scheme began. Satisfying “how to protect ducks from predators” and “mallards city behavior,” the spectacle occasionally draws in tipsy revelers, eager for selfies or baffled by a battalion of ducks guarded by high-vis jackets. “Sometimes we get drunk revelers trying to touch them…99 percent of the time it’s fine,” says Jodie Wood, whose duck patrol Facebook group now rivals the town’s nightlife.
Not a single mallard has perished since volunteers took charge, thanks to a nightly ritual involving 40 cones, two kettles of tea, and a duck-led march that starts precisely at 8:30pm.