'Jail Birds': Ducklings At Correctional Facility To Be Set Free

RIVERHEAD, NY — "Jail birds," a mother duck and her 15 baby ducklings, are slated to be sprung from the Riverhead Correctional Facility soon.

For several years, the same female duck has flown into a courtyard at the Riverhead Correctional Facility to lay her eggs — and she was back for the third year this year, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon's office said.

Those eggs hatched in early June, and since then, the mother duck and her ducklings have been treated to a regular diet of corn meal, visits from jail staff, and plenty of swim time in the courtyard’s fish pond, the Sheriff's office said.

On Tuesday, the ducks will be rounded up and released into the Peconic River; the mom and her ducklings will be loaded into boxes in the courtyard area of the Riverhead jail, placed into a sheriff’s vehicle, transported to a nearby area along the Peconic River, and released into the wild.