February08
Friday, 1st Maria's birthday! 
"Nice day today, no frost or snow yet,..."
I wrote to Frances and Alan this morning, and it really was a lovely,
sunny - if cold - day. About mid afternoon , I was busy sorting out some
papers, somebody up above abruptly switched the light off and this happened:
I always say 'if we do get snow then it's in February' - nice to be proved right!
We started another course of Flubenvet worming last Tuesday [Jochen's
birthday], and as ever the ducks seem to love it, they've certainly
been eating more than usual again. I'm quite convinced that, at the same
time, we worm half the bird population around here. The other day I counted
11 hen pheasants in the orchard,
and then, looking left, I spotted 3 more in the conifer garden:
And it's not just loads of pheasants sharing their food, the waterhens are a constant presence. Rather than fighting them all the time the ducks appear to tolerate them now. I see them foraging together a lot. The picture below shows them in the orchard; there were actually 4 waterhens among them, not all visible in this shot.
Sunday, 3rd February 2008
Well, both ponds were frozen yesterday morning and I had to do the ice-breaking bit again. But the snow didn't stay long in the garden; by lunchtime it was just visible in a few nooks and crannies.
This pheasant sitting near the bird food birch amused me:
It was sitting like this for ages - warming its feet like a penguin, I wondered?
Apart
from big Hedda laying an egg almost every day, just recently we've been
getting a slightly smaller, light green one as well. I suspected it was
Anabelle who'd started to lay, but she stopped in the top hut one night
and in the morning we still had a green egg in the bottom hut, so it must
be Candida. In addition we've had about 5 soft eggs lying squashed and
half eaten outside and in the hut, and I think that must have been Pinky
because they had been large and white. We're going to get some extra grit
for her.
Still nothing happening on the egg laying front in the top hut.
We did the big garden birdwatch last weekend and counted 21 species.
The photo of the wren through the kitchen window didn't turn out, unfortunately,
but you can just recognize a jay in this one:
To close for today a picture of the whacks showing something quite unusual,
Sweetie standing upright.
Well, she IS beating her wings!
Saturday, 9th February 2008 (Bryan Newman would have been 70 today)
Yes, Spring has arrived early. Plants are sprouting and flowering much earlier than they should and I saw a bumble bee today.
The hormones are certainly rising in the drakes, as well, they're getting downright nasty at times. I shall have to keep a close eye on the two remaining Campbells - don't want any more injuries like poor Chissit had last year.
Can you see the path the ducks have worn round and across the bottom end of the 'wildflower patch' and then right and uphill outside the E-fence? That was a river of mud only a couple of days ago - just as well the ground drains well and the grass grows quickly!
I'm very often amused to see the waterhens WALKING through this opening in the fence and on into the orchard, I mean they CAN fly.
Thursday, 14th February 2008 And a very happy Valentine's Day to all! [4 years ago today we fetched out first 4 runner ducks]
After the disastrous crash of the computer last weekend when everything seemed to be lost I am at least limping along now thanks to Carl's much appreciated efforts to get me operational. Isn't it frightening how helpless you can feel when you've been used to certain programmes and files working normally?
I thought it was about time I put in a few pictures. They had rice for
extras today which they absolutely adore, and after I disturbed them they
trooped off to the front lawn for the first time in many months - I only
just caught them through the closed window.
Today was the first dank day for ages, after several crisp, cold and very sunny ones. I don't mind the change though; at least I didn't have to smash the ice on the ponds and buckets this morning!
Tuesday, 19th February 2008
The ice came back with a vengeance, and I've been smashing up two ponds every morning for days. Yesterday was particularly bad at the small pond behind the garage, the ice was more than 2cm thick, I've never known it so bad. The local radio said our area was the coldest in England, having had reports of -9 and even -11. Ducks and drakes are pretty relaxed about it. As long as they can have their morning wash and brush up they just dob down patiently and wait for things to melt or for me to shout them and get a treat. They did alright yesterday; John dug over a patch of ground near the ditch in the afternoon and turned up loads of worms!
[PS on 06.03.08 Carl reminded me this
morning of what he'd shown me on Sunday 2nd and I'd forgotten again, and
I'm alright again on the images, hurrah! Here are three photos from a
very cold February 19th:]
Sunday, 24th February 2008
Harlequin is 17 today, and the old lady is doing well in spite of her blindness.
Wednesday, 27th February 2008 Emmeline's birthday - have a happy one!
What a rude awakening we had last night, or rather early hour of the morning, just before 1am. It sounded as if burglars were using extreme force to break in or a huge JCB trying to demolish our house. John thought it might even be another great tree falling down, but then plumped for earthquake. And of course he was proved right, the epicentre having been in Lincolnshire and registering 5.3 on the Richter Scale. It was the biggest I've experienced and found it very scary. But luckily no damage was done to the house and none of the animals showed any sign of stress. Phew!
For some days now I've noticed that the duck food, particularly at the bottom end, was emptied far sooner than it used to be, even when I'd added extra rations. This morning I happened to get a clear view of what happens after I finish my morning round and am back in the house. The pheasants - well more than a dozen - which take off as a flock when I first turn up, return en masse, plus a few mates, and actually mob the food trough. And our soft ducks just let them do it, and let the waterhens and others join in!
So I took action this morning and brought the food up in front of the garage, with a bucket of water, and thought that'd make sure they get enough to eat. W e e e l l - all the pheasants found it straight away and we were kept busy shooing them off again. The ducks saw it, skirted round it as if it was mined, and only Decibels took a few grains while hurrying after the others. Even after I threw some pasta down near it they ignored the container with grains and pellets. It was the same old story: ok, they seemed to say, it may be our food container but it's not in the right place! So we're leaving it just in case it's dangerous ...
Something else that has been going on for some time is winding me up every night. Our senior duck Fanny, at the top hut, insists on doing a solo round of the hut before retiring for the night. This is after everybody else has gone in, come out again, gone in again, and Fanny has done a couple of tours round the hut in the company of one or two other ducks. Even when these companions have finally gone in she MUST do one on her own. She drives me crazy! But I will not lose my temper, because I know from experience that will just make it worse - and more protracted. Great, ducks, aren't they?