Stay in the middle and you'll be OK.

Mother and father duck, on the left, were very protective of their eight babies. Then along came the aunties to help out, and they kept the babies in the middle of the circle.
We visited Shibbdon Pond, near Blaydon, this morning, where there were lots of ducks and swans, but this little family were the ones that caught my eye.
There are otters at this pond, although I haven't seen them, and the council have recently built them a tunnel under the road, to get safely from here to the river on the other side.