A duck swims in a pond in this February 26, 2006 file photo. A mother duck brought traffic in central Dublin to a standstill for an annual event Friday as she marched her seven ducklings to a pond for their first swim. [AFP]

A mother duck brought traffic in central Dublin to a standstill for an annual event Friday as she marched her seven ducklings to a pond for their first swim.

The duck, encouraged by delighted passersby, was relocating her young from their birthplace in the grounds of Trinity College to St. Stephen's Green, the city's historic public park, around half a mile away.

"She's been doing it for about the last six or seven years now -- laying her eggs at the college and then taking the babies to the green," Trinity groundsman David Hackett told Reuters.

"Usually she's good and picks an evening when it's quiet to waddle them up the street but sometimes she doesn't and in the past we've had to have the police help us out with the traffic."

This time two members of Trinity's zoology department escorted the new family safely along several busy streets.