February10
Thursday, 25th
The success story with moving the food container away from the duck pond didn't continue; after the first couple of days with just a handful of "robbers" visiting we were back to crowds of them - I think I counted 17 or 18 all at once on more than this occasion:
So, yesterday afternoon I moved the food once more, near the watertap by the garage. When we were about to shut the ducks in for the night we could see our gang of 11 standing about 2 or 3 metres away from the food, obviously wanting to eat but not daring to come closer. Every time one of the ducks made a move towards it one of the drakes moved in front of her as if to stop her. We couldn't imagine what the trouble was, I thought it was just the usual "we haven't seen it there before we daren't go near". We saw what it was when we got closer, this:
It looked like a pigeon had been massacred while it was busy at the food trough.
I took this photo from the upstairs window first thing this morning, the container had been this side of the bucket in front of the feathers -
but from memory the scene looked something like this picture I cobbled together:
The scene of the crime looked like this from up close, no surprise then that our ducks and drakes didn't want to go near that dangerous place.
We took the food last night and placed it near the gate to the little pond, and all 11 went crazy for it, they were ravenous.
Today I put the food back at the bottom end of the little greenhouse, and we only uncovered it three times during the day for the ducks to eat. All went well.
Sunday, 21st
This morning we awoke to a substantial layer of snow, more than we had on Thursday/Friday. The three "blue" photos below show what I saw through the windows at about 20 past 7. The covering on the ponds was more slush than ice, and as the morning progressed it was obvious the snow wasn't going to last long - you can see it disappearing fast in the other photos. We're not sorry and nor are the ducks!
Keeping the food near the greenhouse where we can see what's happening has been a great success. After almost a week a few more waterhens and pheasants make the journey to the top than they did Monday or Tuesday, but nowhere near in the huge numbers we used to see taking off at our approach to the duck pond. We don't put the food out until about 10 and the ducks appear to have got used to it. They come running up now when I call, dive in all together and then quickly run back to the pond as they nearly always have mallard visitors now and our lot want to defend their territory.
I neglected to put in some photos from Friday. John did the 'duck run' that morning and shouted me to take a look at a pronounced track we hadn't seen before:
We were pretty sure it must have been a rat running backwards and forwards from where the food container had stood at the bottom of the greenhouse the day before, and once through the gate where you can see the ducks coming out it continued along the back of the fallen-down old greenhouse finishing up somewhere at the back of the garage.
Another thing that puzzled us was this:
Once the snow had gone it was quite easy to put the fence poles upright again as the ground was so soft. The only tracks on the other side were of pheasants - John's theory is that a pheasant hit the netting with some force [maybe pursued by a cat], before the snow came and settled on it.
Wednesday, 17th
We took action at last about the food, it was getting ridiculous the amount of extra scoops of wheat grain we were giving them and still everything was eaten away early in the afternoons. So on Monday we started a new regime - again [I'm sure we had a go at the same last year]. We put down the food container and a couple of water buckets by the lower greenhouse so we could keep an eye on it from the conservatory. The pheasants and waterhens were the first to find it, the ducks only came up after John started digging the vegetable beds.
In the two days since, we've only seen one or two pheasants come to the food trough [we'd covered it over again on Monday so several visiting pheasants had to go away again diasappointed], no waterhens and certainly no mallards, they don't dare come this close to the house. The savings in grain have been spectacular; the amount that used to be gone after half a day has lasted for two days!
There have been other benefits from this change in regime for me, as the ducks have been much more visible from the house. This afternoon, when both John and I were working on the computers, he suddenly shouted: the ducks are up here! And so they were, working their way along the main path and then back to the food trough and after that through the orchard. I got a few shots from the upstairs window [you may notice in some of the photos that I've been very busy chopping shrubs and hedges into shape - John was busy getting the greenhouses ready for the new season]:
Friday, 12th
I was naughty yesterday, I panicked the ducks!
In my defence I'd like to say that I had their best interests at heart. Knowing that all their food, even extra rations, tends to be gone by mid-afternoon due to the still huge numbers of birds [I counted 14 pheasants taking off yesterday morning and the mallards have been increasing their visits and numbers - not to mention waterhens and others] joining in on their feasts, I went out about half past 3 armed with a big bag full of pasta, grated carrots and garlic - the latter two ingredients for their health! I was surprised to see all 11 near greenhouse and garage and called them. They came running as I'd emptied half the contents of the bag on the ground near the bird food birch. But they stopped and ran back to the duck pond where they obviously feel safe.
When they didn't return for the food even after I'd added a bucket full of fresh water I followed them down to the pond. 4 mallards, 3 male, 1 female, took off at my approach as well as various other birds, and yes, their wasn't a scrap of food left in their container.
So I drove them out of the pond and up to the open gate, thwarting all their attempts to break out and run back to the water, closed the fence behind me, and urged them through the orchard in a great panic and up to the birch where I thought they'd finally pick up all the food I'd put down for them. Not at all, one of the drakes grabbed a couple of beak-fulls as he went past, but that was all, they all rushed to the little pond.
I decided to leave them to it; if they were hungry enough they could jolly well come out and get it, they knew where it was after all. So I settled in the conservatory to observe and to get on with my knitting.
Either all 11 or a bit later just the "bottom four" I could see runnning this way and that along the fence to find their way back to the big pond, not one of them attempted to come and get the food. I could see them rooting around the top duck hut and took three snaps through the windows:
At 10 past 5 I gave in, scooped up the food from the ground so the foxes wouldn't get it, and opened the fence again. Ducks 1: Helene 0 in that particular battle.
Bedtime, amazingly, happened without a hitch after all that!
Monday, 8th
I haven't taken any photos of the ducks for a whole week, so here are just 3 of them from Sunday week,Candida, Primmie [behind] and Blob:
The week just gone has been totally ice-free, the water has come through the hose and I could fill the buckets and bowls around the duck pond without any trouble. But today has been noticeably colder and the forecast has promised us more winter weather - I bet there'll be ice in the morning.
Had a bit of a shock last Tuesday when a visitor told us she'd seen a dog fox just where the road dips over the brook. Sure enough, in the afternoon we could hear it barking and yowling - looking for a mate, probably. John rushed down to the duck pond when he heard a commotion and saw a dog fox running past the fence just the other side of the duck hut.
We increased our vigilance, of course, but saw no more of him until I was woken up in the night [more yowling] and saw a dog fox run up the drive. I thought it looked a bit mangy, not at all the beautiful creature our visitor had described. But the following night I was woken up again in the night, and this time it was a prime specimen of a dog fox snuffling around under the bird food birch .................... as long as they only come at night!
We haven't seen or heard any more of these two since, and just keep our fingers crossed that we get no more visits from them.
I just had a look in last year's February entries, and found we were covered in snow until the 13th ..... quite a change this year!
Monday, 1st February Maria's birthday!
Very many congratulations, liebe Maria, on your very special birthday!
What did I say yesterday about there being one good thing about the ice?............"the ducks go into their huts at bed time without protest" I said. Ha! They called me a liar last night and needed several invitations and several runs around the hut before they decided to go in.
We had another frosty start to the day and did more ice bashing. I didn't take the camera down to the pond today but took 4 shots from an upstairs window. There appeared to be a lot of preening going on:
