July

6.7.04 Ducks 0 - Moorhen 2

The moorhens seem to be running a kind of shuttle between the duck pond and the frog pond, where the nest is, a distance of around 50 metres. I've tried to time their going out and coming back, and although I'm not always around or watching, the changeover appears to be happening every hour or so. Once one has gone out through the orchard I can often see it about 5 minutes later swimming in the duck pond, then climbing up onto the stack of tree branches to sit and preen itself on the highest point, only about a foot from where the first nest was.

This morning I was watching the ducks in the frog pond, worried in case they started tugging at the moorhen's nest. They were keeping to the daisy bank side for quite a while, but then Rudolpho went close to the nest ... I didn't actually see he moorhen, but there must have been some kind of altercation as the ducks chattered "alarm, alarm" and left the pond! In the parlance of the recent Euro 2004: 1 - 0 to the moorhen.

Some time later I could see one of the moorhens sunning itself on the branches at the back of the duck pond while out ducks were swimming in it. Rudo, of course, kept going up to it to chase it away, but the moorhen seemed to know full well that the ducks could not climb up to its position as it didn't move. 2 - 0 to the moorhen!

8.7.04

I love to see the comings and goings of the moorhens, they seem to be making good use of the garden. We've seen them in lots of places searching for food. I've even seen one on top of the duck house a couple of times early in the mornings before the ducks were let out. Makes me wonder if it was stamping its feet to say "ha, ha, you can't get me!"

What intrigues me is how they must be continuing working on their nest. Many's the time I've seen them coming up through the orchard with bits of something or other in their beaks, once one had a bundle of dry grass or twigs - made it look as if it had a big moustache:

And this morning, after the stormy weather overnight, there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the pond, with them tugging at the reed grass and other dry stuff on the bank, and several trips to the orchard returning with what looked like a leaf:

There probably is some storm damage to the nest - I've noticed that the batch of reeds containing the nest has been blown away from the pond wall in the North/Easterly winds. This wall would have been protection at their back until last night as our prevailing winds come from the South/West.

There are some, however, who are very pleased, at least about the amount of rain we had overnight: the ducks. The wet brings lots of food to the surface, and I could see them at various places in the garden on intensive search for worms and slugs. They were doing it again like at first described in the "bit of a duck diary" in April, all four in a row in a phalanx, like policemen after a murder incident as John described it.

9.7.04

Bit of a kerfuffle last night. It was about quarter past nine. The ducks were on the footpath side of the daisy bank when Rudo suddenly darted off downhill: one of the moorhens had just come from the orchard and the chase was on! A fight ensued, as before, with the moorhen escaping into the thicket of daisies and grass.

It didn't stop there, though. The ducks went into the pond several times to pursue the moorhen, and I intervened and shooed them out twice. Then there was a lull in the fighting, and the ducks had a lie down where they had been in the first place. After a few minutes I saw the moorhen come out of the pond, peer around the edge of the daisy bank and, not spotting the ducks, starting off towards the orchard - the hunt was on again!

In the end John called a halt to proceedings and chased the ducks into their hut for the night. Peace at last, and the moorhen free to go on its way.

10.7.04 The Rubber Duck Mystery

Have I told you that Pearl sent me a parcel for my birthday with four rubber ducks in it (Pearl's like that, she does many such wonderful things) - after "my" duck pond had been created. As consolation, so to say, until I got my runner ducks? Well, these ducks, Daddy = blue, Mummy = yellow, young son = green and little daughter = pink, have been sitting in a little hollow on the edge of the pond since the end of October 2003, at this spot in the photo on the left of the "real" ducks:

Now and then one or the other would fall into the water, sometimes all four, either pushed over or blown by the wind, but I could always fish them out again and put them back in the same place.

For weeks however now, the "children" were nowhere to be seen. Could they have drowned? - No, hardly possible. What's more they could not be seen under the water, not a glimmer. But who could have wanted to pinch them? It was a mystery.

Then, yesterday evening - I had been tidying up in the ditch as the storm had torn off whole sections of the trees - I remembered I hadn't cleaned the duck house. I went and there, right under the threequarters dead ash, lay the little pink "girl"! John told me later that he had "found" it while mowing (it had got caught in the mower).

I have two suppositions. 1. The jackdaws nesting in the threequarters dead ash tree have bad eye sight and took the little rubber ducks because they can't distinguish them from real ducklings. 2. The jackdaws pinched them for toys for their young, and the little pink one fell out of the nest.

The green little "boy" remains lost.

12.7.04

They've had another frog, the little tykes. John saw them and took this picture yesterday afternoon:

A big one, this time. You might just see - with a magnifying glass?? - the long legs dangling from Pearl's (on the very left) beak.

18.7.04

Although pidgeons are still prime targets, moorhen chasing seems to have developed into a popular sport for the ducks. I've seen the most frenzied chases going on in the orchard and near the stile, just like the kind of thing you saw in old black and white films: incredibly fast run across open space into the nearest thicket, out again and into the undergrowth on the opposite side, Valentino or Rudo coming out looking frantically left and right "where is it? where did it go?"; then locating the moorhen again and starting all over again, zig zag fashion all through the orchard until the moorhen disappears somewhere the ducks don't go. I often ask myself "why doesn't it fly away when it can", but running away always seems to be the first impulse.

But don't think it's all one-sided, like four against one. The moorhens seem to be deliberately taunting the ducks on their pond, knowing just where the ducks can and cannot follow. After two tremendous chases all around the duck pond, which I was able to watch from close quarters while gardening, the ducks finally gave up and got out of the pond to preen themselves, and with Rudo still standing on the edge in full view the moorhen got into the pond for a swim.

They seem to have adjusted to each others' habits, too. The ducks know exactly where the moorhens come out and go into the frog pond, and it looks deliberate the way they position themselves right in their path, so they cannot pass unnoticed. And I've seen the moorhens hang around in the undergrowth on the other side of the stile until the ducks have gone away.

This morning I watched one of them for quarter of an hour fetching pieces of reed grass six times, from all around the frog pond, and taking them to the nest before leaving the pond at twenty to eight. Was it trying to give its mate something to do while it was out, knowing it would be "marooned" once the pesky ducks were out? Well, it's possible, isn't it? I didn't see one again until twenty to twelve.

The moorhens seem well able to defend themselves against the ducks, and I've seen them hide away as soon as they hear the magpies. What worries me is what will happen once there are little chicks. They must be hatching out any day now because the incubation period is 19-22 days. In fact, I thought yesterday that it must already have happened, as I saw BOTH moorhens taking a lengthy swim about 2 in the afternoon - when the ducks are on their second lunch-time snooze near their pond - and they kept looking over to their nest. I thought they might be encouraging their first youngsters to come out, but nothing happened. But that was really stupid of me. I looked it up afterwards: it takes 40 - 50 days before the young ones are fledged!!

19.7.04

When we returned home last night all four ducks were in the frog pond, and while we were chasing them away the moorhen flew off into the hawthorn at the corner. Then we noticed that the nest with eggs in it was on full view. The ducks must have pulled at the reed grass until it was almost in the water.

We spent the rest of the evening on watch and chasing the ducks back to their own pond several times until their bed time. I was thinking that all this chasing had looked very funny to us, but must have been deadly serious to the animals.

20.7.04

I couldn't resist it, I had to have a peek. I did some weeding in the bog garden between the fish ~ and the frog pond until the sitting hen took off. But I was disappointed - still 6 eggs and no chicks. It's definitely the 22nd day after I first saw them. Is it possible that some eggs just don't hatch?

But the moorhens don't seem troubled. The one I disturbed this morning returned almost immediately, and both are extremely busy fetching nesting materials - once this morning they went out together. Could they patch their nest that much or are they building another one? John reckons they're building an annexe for their children! This afternoon I was astounded to see the male (I think - slightly bigger) make more than 30 trips to the nearest flower border, more than 10 metres away, and fetch stalks and leaves. Some pieces almost a foot long, some just 2 - 3 inches. Those he tugged at and cut off most were the strappy Crocosmia leaves near the plum tree, in this photo just on the left of the tall, spent foxglove.

The ducks, for the moment anyway, appear to have got the message that they're not wanted in the frog pond. They only came up twice early this morning, and the second time I didn't even have to chase them - they went back by themselves.

25.7.04

When we returned from Chapel this evening I went and took a close look, as a whole section of reeds had come away from the pond wall. Something moved, and I saw the moorhen slip off the nest which was now fully exposed. Only four eggs in it! What had happened to the other two, or was this a new nest? It certainly was in a new position, about half a metre closer to the pond steps and our house. I had already noticed during the last week that the waterhens, when they returned with nesting material, always swam into the reeds from near the steps, not as before from the pebble end of the pond.