Break-out

My morning dash for the road was brought up short when I first heard and then saw a panic* of ducklings on the soggy swamp along the lane. They swarmed away into the undergrowth as I came near, splashing and scrambling and quacking like demented things in pink and yellow. I made a detour to alert their owner who went to fetch his wife to help herd them back into the field from which they had escaped before the break-out became breakfast (for a fox).  It was just the beginning of a long day: 5 hours cooking, followed by a two and a half hour meeting of our refugee resettlement group. 

*NOT one of the official collective nouns for ducks which include
a dopping
a paddling
a badling
a raft
a team
a sord
a twack