Do Mallard ducks ever leave their ducklings even for 5-10 minutes?

We recently had the pleasure of protecting and seeing through. Mallard duck nest in our garden planter, hatch her ducklings and escorted them across the road where they found a stream.

We believe the stream connects to a lake or two about a mile away. However, although this was 3 days ago that they left, today we noticed mother duck back for a quick splash and feed in our neighbours pond before rushing off. No more than 5 minutes.

We are worried the ducklings didn’t make it because would she not leave them at all otherwise? The garden is approx 1 mile away from where the lake would be if she did make it, or 100yds across a road and field if they decided to setup in the stream??