August06

Thursday, 3rd August 2006 Elizabeth's birthday

Last time I wrote, towards the end of last month, it was still scorching hot. Now, all of a sudden, we have autumn - well, it has felt like it for the last couple of days at least.

The ducks don't mind at all, in fact they love it. As soon as it starts raining they set off for the field where they must have had rich pickings as they go back time and again. The duckpond 8 join them, parallelly, on the other side of the electric fence, just like in the first photo on 25th July.

No, I haven't put them in together again since last Wednesday. I did open a section of the fence on 2 days last week to give the duckpond crowd a chance to get into the garden and join the others, but they didn't come out. It appears they feel safe inside the fence, and I could see no reason to drive them out and make them mingle. The mingling does involve a lot of protest quacking, fighting and establishing a pecking order, and from my experience last week I know it takes them about half a day to sort themselves out. So, if we ever want to go away for a day and leave them we know we can do that now in safety. And if we wanted to go for several days and nights we could move the hut behind the garage inside the electric fence enclosure and leave all 18 together. They could go into their respective huts at night or stop on the pond as they liked and needn't trouble any family members or neighbours to keep an eye on them or put them in at night.

This picture shows our 10 going off to the field for the umpteenth time yesterday late afternoon - you probably can't see it but it's raining gently

Friday, 4th August 2006

It was too good to be true, we lost the one we called Chequers yesterday early evening.

No, we never saw a thing. Around half past 6 I heard persistent loud quacking and went to see what was the matter. There was a small group of 4 standing just to the right of where you can see Decibel (she tends to hang back from the group in case the drakes are after her) in yesterday's picture above, the last of the 10 going out, and it was Circle making the noise. The rest of them were swimming in the frog pond. I couldn't see anything amiss and went back to my baking. John went out to investigate and realized there were only 9 left out of the 10.

I can only assume a fox came through a gap near the stile and hid under the shrubs awaiting his chance. It was a big blow. We hadn't seen any droppings, and certainly had no sight of a fox for months. The worry is now that he knows how many ducks there are to be had - when is he coming back for more? We shut both parties into their respective enclosures while we were out today, but it seems not to matter whether we keep watch over them in the garden or not. Lily was taken when we were both in the very area from where she was snatched, and yesterday it happened right under our noses at the back of the house with all doors open. I despair that we can never feel safe with our charges.

On a happier note, Frances came up with a great name for our last unnamed Campbell: Chissit. A wonderful Leicestershire expression (from "how mu ch is it?"). Thank you, Frances, and for all your support!

Sunday, 6th August 2006

Yesterday morning was spent clearing Sycamore suckers and chopping loads of holly. I stuffed it along the fence near the stile, hoping it will make any return visit of the fox more difficult. In the afternoon I moved the electric fence to encompass tall grasses along the horse fence - a favourite hunting ground - and our "formal" patch, thus giving the duck pond duckies more room and space/shade into the garden. While moving the fence I noticed quite a lot of damage like this:

I still haven't finished reparing it all as it took ages. I suspect rabbits chewed through it, rotten little toe-rags, but I blame myself as well as I'd got so slack and not switched the fence on lots of the times, and definitely not over night as we thought the ducks safe enough in their hut. It gets switched on overnight now!

All the ducks made very good use of their extended area yesterday. Here's a shot from the bottom of the field for a change, with the now 9 at the top left of this picture on the other side of the fence.
Today we've had an escape. I'd been watching the 9 near the frog pond most of the day for fear of the fox's return, when I saw a single white duck over towards the horse fence. Strange, I thought, for you hardly ever see any of them on their own; and for one nonsensical and delirious nanosecond I imagined Chequers had come back.

It turned out to be the newly named Chissit - because Perky has a few black marks on her beak and this one didn't - making her way slowly quacking to the frog pond where she was not graciously received. John opened a section of the fence and we guided her back in. We have no idea how she got out. I suspect she flew over (they're quite capable!) while being harrassed by one or other of the drakes. She'd been pecked noticeably at the back of her head and neck.

Monday, 7th August 2006

The duck pond 8 have started to explore their expanded territory in the formal "trapeze beds" garden. I could hear them snuffling excitedly among the laurel hedge trimmings while I was pruning nearby. I frightened them, though, when I turned up with the camera, and only just caught them exiting towards the potato patch:

Made both lots of ducks extremely happy today by topping up 2 ponds. They just LOVE splashing and diving in the fresh water and go quite wappy. I didn't catch any of the Campbells propelling themselves across the water by thrashing the surface with their wings, but I did just get Rellchen doing the same:

While I was down at the duck pond I peeled back the turves at the place where they usually get out of the water and dug out quite a lot of soil from under the liner to lower that edge. All the ducks struggled to get out onto the high bank when the water level was low. They appreciated my efforts:

In this picture big Hedda has just got out and Chissit is following - Anabelle keeping her distance in the background. Took a nice photo of Pinky and Perky, too:
From the left: Chissit with head under water, big Hedda, Perky, Pinky and either Clarence or Captain - can't tell from this angle. Can you see the Ligularia in front is just about to break into flower? Unfortunately mystery bugs are still shredding the beautiful leaves.

At the frog pond we had the usual fun and games with the two boys forever chasing the 3 youngsters. I noticed they stayed back when the 6 others went off for a feed and had an unbullied time in the water:

Wednesday, 9th August 2006

I've not been gardening these last two days as we've been busy with changes in the kitchen. Watched the ducks near the house all morning while cleaning the conservatory windows and spotted Circle making a lovely hollow in preparation for laying. You can just see her peeping out from under the Phlomis in the bottom middle of this photo:

From lunchtime, to have peace of mind, we put both groups together inside the electrified fence. There was a bit of bother at first but then both parties stayed with their own in different parts of the enclosure. I did notice the Campbells raided the food container of the "house" group, and the latter were certainly not allowed into the duck pond!


Looking at these 2 photos which John took I see that poor Decibels was going through it. That's her being attacked in the middle background just in front of a box ball, and again on the far right flapping her wings madly trying to get away from whoever was chasing her.

You may also notice that I still haven't got the laurel hedges into shape and need to do a lot of clearing up!

Sweetie got out from under the fence even when it was switched on (there was a gap where I hadn't managed to drive the stake far enough into the hard ground) and the 3 other grown-up girls from that group followed her. They turned up at the frog pond at 10 past 4, quacking loudly, when I was trying to finish the conservatory. But as the 2 boys had stayed with the 3 young ones they immediately turned round and went back to rejoin them.

When I went to do some more fence mending later on it was Florrie who had got out under the fence gap, and then didn't have the sense to go back the same way. I watched her working her way all around the perimeter of the fence to the bottom end of the duck pond - where she alarmed Anabelle feeding near her hut - and back again. I had opened a section of the fence by then where we usually go in, and she did find her way back to the others eventually.

The two groups kept separate from each other all afternoon. Just like two distinct family units knowing they belong together, squabbling amongst themselves now and again but also looking out for each other.


(That bit of copper beech you can see on the very right of this oval picture, by the way, is Hamish's tree, Annie!)

Monday, 14th August 2006

We've had quite a bit of rain the last few days. I'm delighted for the garden, and the ducks certainly love it going off to the field to forage a lot. We're keeping the 2 groups separate unless we're away for a long time - there were several fox droppings in the garden near the greenhouses overnight. I worry when the group outside the fence go too far into the field and chase them back.

When the "home" crowd set off and they get to the top end of the electrified enclosure - see picture below - the duck pond lot usually come up and the four boys talk to each other. I often imagine what they might be saying, what boasts/insults might be exchanged - things like "we've got more girls than you!" (true ... one more) "well, our girls are better and they lay more eggs!" (also true ... although we've only ever had 3 eggs at a time from the 4 Campbells. Whether one of them is not laying or whether the 4 take it in turns I don't know!)

Wednesday, 16thAugust 2006 Pearl's birthday

I was made to eat my words: yesterday there were 6 eggs in the hut by the duck pond, and here's a photo of them:

The 2 greeny/blue ones are from the 2 runners, so the other 4 must be from the Campbells - the drakes most certainly don't lay any! That small one with the arrow pointing to it looked sort of light brown; very unusual.

The egg on it's own bottom left was in the hut near the house, but we did find 2 more later on in hollows on the bank by the frog pond. Sweetie, Circle and Florrie tend to lay in that area.

Pearl's coming over tonight. Among other things (cakes, presents) she'll want to see the new ducks and the garden. I'm really looking forward to seeing her.

Sunday, 20th August 2006

We've had 3 more smallish Campbell eggs similar to the one pointed out by the arrow above right. I'm guessing, as Pinky is the smallest of the Campbells, that they are hers.

Not much in the way of news, just a couple of photos of the 9 enjoying rooting around in the vegetable garden. It never ceases to amaze me how they always find a muddy puddle to dabble in. This one, below left with Florrie and Circle's beaks in, was contained in a little bit of plastic hanging over from where John had covered the onions.

Friday, 25th August 2006

Annie came at the beginning of this week with the girls and Ollie the chocolate labrador and time has just flown by.

Eleanor has been there and helping at every letting out of the ducks and every shutting in at night - one evening when she was already in her nightie! She has filled the food containers every morning at eight and carried them to their respective places while I carried the water buckets. She has also helped me with mucking out the huts - well, I did the really dirty part and she sprayed disinfectant, put the clean bedding and tansy leaves in (for bug control). But the bit she likes most of all is collecting the eggs every morning and putting the dates on them. Here's a photo of her with yesterday's haul:

Eleanor would like to tell the story of yesterday's "egg mystery" herself:

Yesterday when Omi and I went to collect the eggs [my favourite bit as you know] I went in and saw there were 7 eggs from 6 ducks! Omi couldn't believe it, but it was true.

We suspected that one of them, Pinky we think, [2 of the eggs looked like hers] had laid the day before and hidden it under the sawdust from the drakes and before she went out that morning uncovered it. Who knows?

I found 2 eggs in the other hut and Omi helped me carry those in I couldn't fit into the pouch of my rain anorak. When I was writing dates on the eggs I could only see one blue egg. But we always get 2 blue eggs from the Campbell hut and all six ducks had laid. Another mystery! It was solved when we found that Omi had left one blue egg in the pocket of her bodywarmer.