IT’S not the usual place for a motherly mallard to set up her nest.

Homeowners Mark and Ann Viney were stunned when they looked into the garden of their home in Budds Lane, Romsey, to find she had chosen their terracotta pot to hatch her tiny ducklings.

Having laid 10 duck eggs, she then spent the next five weeks sat on the soil incubating them until seven successfully hatched.

The mother and her ducklings spent one more day in the pot before she led four of them down to the nearby River Test.

The remaining three were abandoned but luckily kind-hearted builders who were repairing the Viney's property which had been caught up in the floods earlier this year, spotted their plight and called the RSPCA.

The baby ducks were collected and taken to Romsey’s World of Water.

Mr Viney, a 67-year-old retired engineer, said: “It was obviously somewhere that was high and dry and she made herself comfortable and hardly moved for the next five weeks.”