April06

Saturday, 1st

I'm getting "worserer" as John would say. It's a week and a half since I last wrote. In my defence I can only say that I've been very, very, very busy.

The "fortifications" in the ditch have kept them in as far as I know, no mass break-out. The fighting is getting worse though. When tidying up in the garden I could observe quite closely. They all seem to be having a go at each other, but mostly it's Captain pursuing Clarence and then Donald joining in, then whoever has been pursued chases whoever is nearest, even the girls - and poor Blob keeps himself very much at a distance except when the troope changes location, then they still go all together. Poor deformed little Splodge seems to be standing up for himself very well, I never see him being chased. I often wonder how they get on at night, does the fighting stop? I don't see too many feathers when I clean out the hut.

As Clarence appears to be chased more than any of the others I'm quite glad I didn't go through with the plan to buy another hut, fence off a large area around the duck pond and into the field, and put Captain, Blob and Clarence - maybe even Splodge as well (as they seemed to be the least aggressive at the time) - in there, leaving the girls with Donald in the old hut and the rest of the garden. Good job I didn't. The four boys without the girls probably would have murdered each other by now. Also it seems cruel to separate them in spite of their scrapping, and to exclude four of them from the duck pond which they've really grown to love. Dilemma ...............................

The egg laying has continued in wonderful fashion, 3 practically every day. I freeze, pickle and salt them and also bake a lot with them.

There looks to be a certain ritual involved with egg laying, a peck, peck, pecking all around before they "perform". Gertie and Pearl used to lay their eggs in the corner just left of the hatch, and they had pecked so much in that corner that it looked like they were trying to chop their way through the floor. Now our 3 girls lay alongside the opposite side of the hut;
can you see the marks they've made on this photo?

The opposite corner looks like this, with an exposed nail in the middle:

Friday, 7th April 2006

The weather is still cold, but we've been able to get out into the garden quite a bit. John looks to be on top of his greenhouse work, preparing veg beds and seedlings, and I've been concentrating on getting pernicious weeds out before they get too big and tidying up the borders. I've had lots of little ducky helpers as you might imagine - they come running as soon as they see me with a wheel barrow. Lily in particular has stuck very close to me (and the worms I turn up!), so much so that she forgets herself, suddenly realizes everyone else has gone down to the duck pond, and rushes off to join them in a wild panic.

While doing some weeding yesterday afternoon I noticed that Olive was limping badly. Not only that, but in the space of about 10 minutes she was being "got", 3 or 4 drakes fighting on top of her, she looked in a terrible state. I've been aware that ducks can be damaged when there are too many drakes. They can drown during mating if held too long under water, and if it takes place on land their legs can be hurt or even broken because of the weight - unsupported by the water - on top of them.

So this morning I decided to take action intending to leave the 3 girls in the enclosure with just one drake, and somehow separate 4 of the boys to run around outside. Easier said than done. I eventually caught 3 of them and threw them over the closed gate. Splodge presented me with the biggest problem, flying higher than I thought he could, but then I just caught him by a leg - didn't hurt him; he was running around like a top afterwards.

Neither side was happy with the new arrangements and made lots of noise, one lot of 4 trying to get out and the others trying to get in. The girls settled down quickest, picking up food, having a little swim, chasing a blackbird or two, or standing on one leg having a snooze.

Not so the "outside" boys. They spent most of the morning running between the two gates to the enclosure and keeping a watchful eye on "their" girls through the door of the broken down greenhouse and through the fences. Their few trips to the duck pond were very brief, also those to forage among the beds. It's now after lunch and the story is the same, the outsiders staying mainly by the greenhouses where they can see their women:

I picked Clarence to stay in with the girls, to give him a rest from being constantly chased by Captain and because - as I had never seen him near the ducks - I had an idea that he might be "batting for the other side". Not so, I could see him from the window being 'successful' in the appletree pond. He must now think all his Christmasses have come at once, from never being let near them having all 3 girls to himself, plus getting Captain off his back!

Olive is still limping, but not as badly as last night, and from the picture below you can see she is enjoying the rest:

John thought I might be making matters worse rather than better by this separation. We shall see how it goes when I let the outsiders in again at bedtime!

Other exciting things have been happening. You remember Mel from Seagrave who found me via some ducky link, and who came to visit last month to borrow our incubator? Great news yesterday and today: the incubated eggs starting pipping 2 days ahead of time, 4 had hatched last night and 3 more this morning. First pictures (and great memories for us from last June!):

Saturday, 15th April 2006

It's over a week now since I separated them, but in case you're wondering, this is what happened: at quarter past 7 John thought he'd better open the gate to the "outsiders", just to let the 2 groups gel again before bedtime. And yes, almighty fights broke out immediately. Clarence, after his day of enjoyment and relaxation, got a reality check - and the girls were for it, too.

All was well the next morning, however, Olive with just a slight limp which had disappeared the next day. At least I know that if I have to separate them for the sake of the health of the girls, it does work.

The ducks continue to be "attacked" in what looks like a vicious manner. Once the drakes have got hold of the feathers at the back of their heads they bash them from left to right and trample all over them, brutal it looks. I noticed though that the girls have got very good at dodging and diving out of the way, just like Eppi used to last year. For 2 or 3 days now we've had the unusual sight of our 8 runners hanging around house and garage rather than the duck pond they got to love. We saw them sleeping here, there and everywhere near the house:

One of them always seems to be on "guard duty". In the third picture on the right the guard is not pecking the ground, as it might appear, but his head was so heavy with sleep that it was drooping!

My theory as to the reason for this is that the girls are trying to avoid being "got". It looks as if they have a better chance of getting away out of the water - I've noticed they are being very careful to keep out of the ponds. They all sleep much more during the day than they used to. I suppose they need to recuperate after all that chasing and scrapping and running away.

Yesterday morning we thought we'd lost Lily. Quite soon after being let out John saw there were only 7 of them running around. We assumed, as there had been just 2 eggs in the hut, that one of them had gone back into the hut to lay - as had happened once before. But after a long time waiting for her to come out I went with the camera to take a snap of her. But she wasn't in there! I searched all over the run, in the tumble-down greenhouse and in all the likely places in the garden. Nothing. We were getting worried by then. John thought a fox might have got her. He went out looking in the ditch and all over. Still nothing. Then, just as we were starting the search once more we saw 7 approach, and Captain suddenly stopping short on the main path and calling loudly. And then we saw Lily running up from the direction of the formal garden.

I went out a little later on a proper Easter egg hunt. Lily's egg took some finding - it was very well hidden under the big lonicera bush near the eucalyptus. I felt a bit mean taking it away, but remembering from last year how we left Gertie's four eggs under the lonicera bush nearer the house and they were all taken overnight when we waited for a fifth, I thought I'd better. I'm sure I saw a rat running by the enclosure gate on two occasions.

Lily did the same trick this morning, absenting herself for almost an hour. I haven't been out yet to look for the egg ....

You may have noticed from the picture above left that we are still battling the moles. Harlequin does her best to help,
and we keep shovelling the piles of earth away and bashing the area with a spade, but they keep coming. John is planning to get the big mower out this afternoon and giving them all a right shaking!

Saturday, 22nd April 2006

The girls are quite obviously fed up with the drakes' persistent attentions and try as much as they can to keep out of their way. They are looking a bit ragged as well with very muddy wing feathers. Fanny's don't look as brown as the 2 young ones' - I bet she doesn't get trampled on as much. Olive often absents herself deliberately. Here she is having a big grooming session just outside the garage:
It's a shame that the ducks miss out on their swimming and diving sessions which helps to keep their feathers in good condition, but they are careful not to go into the water from the hut in the mornings, stopping at the edge and just dipping their beaks in. Saw one of the drakes trying to pull one of them into the water this morning ..... I can't wait for the mating season to be over!

This is a sight we see quite often now, all 8 resting under the low-hanging forsythia and philadelphus branches between the duck enclosure and our house - they've spent hours under there. It's really the girls who go under the branches as they've found they can't be got there, and then the boys get fed up with going around on their own and join. It seems to be a rule accepted by all that no shenanigans are allowed while they are resting - the circus starts all over again as soon as the girls get up to feed.

We had another unusual visitor to the garden, a hawk or harrier. John saw it twice at the back of the house, on top of the hedge between next door and us. It flew off with something in its beak before we could take a picture. Even after consulting several bird books we're not quite sure what it was. Kestrels are supposed to be reddish brown, but I'm sure this bird - 9 - 10 inches long - was more grey than brown. No, not a sparrow hawk, either, I know what they look like.

Monday, 24th April 2006

Had a terrible shock this morning. John let the ducks out, and I saw him standing by the hut looking around all perplexed;
he could only count 7 in all. Splodge was missing. We can only assume it was a fox as we still see droppings around the garden, but when?

We returned home just gone 7.30 last night, and I could have sworn I counted 8 while John was carefully avoiding driving over the cat. We would have heard if anything had taken place near the house, so they must have gone back into the field between our return and bedtime. John didn't count them then as some where already in the hut when he shut the hatch door. John said he saw some feathers in the field when he was mowing this afternoon.

I feel very sorry that the plucky little fellow who injured his foot coming out of the egg should be snaffled up by a fox. What is extremely worrying is, thinking back to last year when the foxes came back time and again, when will they strike again? I really don't want to fence our lovely runners in; I want them to enjoy the same freedom that is afforded to foxes.

Tuesday, 25th April 2006

Something cheered me up today: saw a waterhen being chased across the duck pond and out across the branches at the back by one of the four drakes. Would be nice to see them building nests again.

And the cherry blossom that was just breaking in the picture above on Saturday is now pretty plumptious:

Wednesday, 26th April 2006

I had to laugh this morning. No sooner were the ducks out of the hut than we heard very loud quacking and saw Olive running out of the gate, past the front of the garage, across 3 flower beds and stopping short of the lonicera near where I was weeding last. She had a few furtive looks all around - now having stopped quacking - and WHOOOSH disappeared under the bush.

Yes, we did find her fourth "outside" egg there later.