A nature worker rescued a lamb after an extraordinary accident.

Owen Leyshon found the animal wandering in a field with a bucket stuck on its head.

He swung into action, promptly pulling it off.

Mr Leyshon told Kent Online: "It was wandering around in circles.

"I jumped over the fence and was able to pull the bucket off in one go. The lamb then ran back to its mother.

"It gave a few little bleats but didn't seem distressed.

"I have seen sheep stuck in fences and ditches but I have never seen anything like this, having worked with nature for 25 years."

Mr Leyshon, a wildlife conservation group project officer, saw the lamb helpless as he was leaving his workplace, the Romney Marsh Day Centre.

He came across the extraordinary sight as he passed the field neighbouring the base, at Rolfe Lane, New Romney, between 4pm and 5pm on Friday.

He said: "Somebody must have left the bucket there and I don't know why the lamb put its head in it.

"Maybe there was still some food in it.

"I have no idea how long it had been in that state but I had passed the field about an hour before and not noticed it then."

A few colleagues from his group, the Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership, watched the rescue.

One photographed the moment Mr Leyshon reached out to pull off the bucket.

Mr Leyshon believes the lamb was two to three months old but it is not know if it was male or female.

Owen Leyshon, 48, writes the the Nature Notes column for the Ashford and Romney Marsh editions of the Kentish Express.