A tender moment in a Southland paddock has melted hearts as wild weather swept across the region.<\/p>\n
As driving rain and extreme winds hammered Southland this week, one small act of warmth stood out amid the storm.<\/p>\n
On a farm near Winton, a newborn lamb was found huddled in the grass with a clutch of baby paradise ducklings pressed close against its fleece. The tiny group appeared to be sharing body heat as they rode out the storm together.<\/p>\n
Farmer Logan Hammond of East Limehills, said the sight stopped him in his tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolutely miserable weather \u2014 real Southland stuff \u2014 and there was this wee lamb with the ducklings tucked in beside it. It was just beautiful and I found it hard to believe what I was seeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The mother paradise duck was seen nearby, keeping watch as her young nestled safely beside the lamb.<\/p>\n
After a week of wild conditions, the image has struck a chord with locals online \u2014 many calling it a reminder of the quiet kindness that endures, even in the toughest weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cNature looks after its own,\u201d Hammond said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a harsh week for stock and wildlife alike, but even in the middle of it, nature still finds a way to be kind and moments like this make you smile.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Grant Hammond<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tender moment in a Southland paddock has melted hearts as wild weather swept across the region. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-102786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}