July09

Friday, 3rd

We got some this morning! After all the promised rain had passed us by in the last weeks we got a right old thunderstorm this morning with particularly loud claps of thunder startling the ducks. The first downpour of heavy rain flooded all the dips in the ground and my newly extended bed outside the conservatory where I did some fresh planting ................ they LOVED it!

After this mudpuddling the rain got extremely heavy and the ducks were no longer comfortable in it. They have lots of bushes and trees to shelter under, they could even go back into the huts, but no - they all tried to fit under the climbing hydrangea again:

Wednesday, 8th July 2009 - [the Boags are back from America since yesterday, welcome home!]

Did I mention how great flocks of young jackdaws and other birds lift off from the ducks' food troughs whenever we turn up in the garden? And, of course, the rats make an appearance there now and again. So I thought I'd introduce a new feeding regime, the kind of things lots of my German "ducky" friends do, i.e. put food down after release in the morning, take it away after an hour or so and then feed them again about an hour before bed time.

Well, I started it 4 days ago, and so as to get them used to this new regime gently I introduced a mid-day meal as well. They were ravenous whenever I turned up with the food, and I found it very labour-intensive, taking 2 lots of food out, taking it back in, then out again and so on. Then of course after two days we were going to be away for half a day or longer ................. to cut a long story short I've given up again and resigned myself to suffering the hordes of scavengers again.

When cleaning the bottom hut late this afternoon I thought how well the nasturtiums had developed and took a few photographs. Here are three:

The plastic mesh covered pond verges are holding up pretty well, too!

Thursday, 9th July 2009

The rains have let up for a bit - just a few spots today - and we've spent most of the day in the garden. John was cutting the laurel hedge around our "formal" garden [which is in severe need of a tidy up as you may see from these photos] .................................

.................... and look what he found under the holly and wild rose:

To judge by the colour of the eggs it must have been either Anabelle or Candida, it's hard to tell. I covered the eggs over again as best I could; if she's that keen to gather herself a little nest she can get on with it - we have plenty of eggs in the house!

Friday, 10th July 2009

It was Anabelle with the nest, we found out today. When I let them out this morning she set off up the hill immediately, but changed her mind and stopped while I was filling the water buckets. I thought no more about it until John came back from his mowing late morning and said he'd seen Anabelle sitting on the nest. She didn't stay on it though, and when she had gone we could see that she had added one egg and re-arranged the others:

The egg in front looks as if it has been pecked - I've no idea if Anabelle did that because it was unsatisfactory to her or if some other bird had a go, after all the nest now lies open. We were surprised she made no effort to cover it up again.

It is of course much too late in the year to hatch eggs [youngsters would get their youth moult around 8 weeks and later on their proper moult just when they need to be feathered up well for winter], and on past evidence Anabelle is not likely to sit on them for a month. But I just wanted to see if she'd carry on laying in there and if she'd make an attempt at sitting.

While I was taking this photograph of the nest there was a commotion at the duck pond and I could see the mallard duck landing. We've not seen the drakes for a while but she turns up now and again, always causing outrage with the 3 resident females. Captain, who is moulting, has calmed down in his urges more than BBD and Blob, and he certainly made no attempt to "rape" the mallard as he used to weeks ago. Hedda took up the chase instead, the mallard hopped out to sit on the tree trunk sections, slid back into the water, Hedda chased again and mallard duck hopped out at the food trough side - I bet that's what she had come for. My photos from a distance aren't much good but they might give you an idea:

She blended in so well I stuck in an arrow to point her out.

It's early afternoon now and John has just come back from the garden with more exiting news: there was a pheasant hen with 6 youngsters at the food trough down at the duck pond, and he spotted a snake on the compost heap behind the garage. We do have some wildlife!

Tuesday, 14th July 2009 [Bastille Day]

I can't believe I didn't mention Marianne Terhechte's visit in June - I've just been searching and can't find a mention or photo of it. I think of Marianne as one of my lovely nieces, although she really is the niece of my stepmother Mia.

I think it was 18th June Marianne and Werner popped in briefly on their tour around Ireland and England
when I took this photo at the duck pond.

But now Marianne has sent some photos she and Werner had taken and I'll put some of those in now.

During our little walk around the garden I got the horrors when I saw how hairy my "caterpillar" had become, but I've given him a haircut now!

[On a personal note, seeing these photos of me has made it clear that I've got to eat less!]

Marianne got some nice photos of the ducks, too. The second one below shows how badly Decibels has been treated by Blob in particular, Circle too - just the two white ducks - , but Decibels does honour to her name in shrieking the place down half the day, with justification I would add, as she looks pink and ragged at the back of her head. Time those boys calmed down!

I was delighted to read in Marianne's mail that she reads these diaries ................. so HELLO! Marianne and thank you for the photos!

Before July has ended I thought I'd update you on some of the things I mentioned before, like the waterhens. One or two of the adults make an appearance at the ducks' food trough quite regularly, but none of the youngsters seem to have survived. I've not seen any since late June, what a shame, must be due to predatory activity along the ditch.

Anabelle abandoned her nest after laying her sixth egg in there, and as all three ducks had laid in the hut this morning I decided to take the eggs out of the nest, apart from the one that was broken. After cracking them into cups I discarded 3 of them - didn't like their smell. The other two were fine, and with another egg from the fridge I made a batter and thus celebrated the arrival of my long-desired waffle iron [on the paper work I saw that the iron was manufactured in Bochum, next to my home town of Herne!]. The waffles were DELICIOUS!

Monday, 20th July 2009

Something I forgot to report on all last week was that I took the advice of my lieber Bruder Gerd and tried once more with the reduced feeding programme. So, for longer than a week now, I've been putting out just half the normal rations [which is roughly 150 g per beak per day] in the mornings and the second feed an hour and a half or so before their bedtime. For the evening feed I've sometimes been adding grated carrots, garlic, oregano and comfrey which are all said to keep them healthy - no, I'm not that clever, I picked up many tips from experienced keepers. The ducks are not very keen on the carrots [which make their gut "worm-unfriendly" I hear], but then it took them some time to get used to all sorts of other things.

The new feed programme has been pretty successful, at least I've not seen so many food thieves as before. Especially the four ducks [Anabelle in particular] on the big pond have been RAVENOUS every evening, although the seven at the top often had a few grains left in their container. I can only think that's because they have access to the veg beds and find plenty to eat there!

To finish for today a couple of pictures of the 7's favourite resting places ......... except when it's raining and they have puddles to mess around in!

Monday, 27th July 2009

Having returned from my dog-sitting stint at Carl and Val's last night it was great to see the ducks again today. All appear to be well, so John must have been doing a good job looking after them while I was away. Very interesting thing happened, though, in my absence. John tells me that our neighbour came around one evening carrying a small box. He said that one of their cats had brought a bird in and they didn't know what it was. John took a look inside the box and saw it was a waterhen chick, a recently hatched one, and it seemed to be uninjured. John took it to the duck pond and the little thing swam away!

John did tell our neighbour that I'd been distraught to see one of their cats running away with a waterhen chick in its mouth some time ago, and that I'd been meaning to ask them to fit their cats with bells while so many fledgling birds were about. He said that their cats brought in an awful lot of birds, mostly dead, said they'd tried everything ........... I've gone right off those cats.

Happy news this morning, though. When I let the bottom four out I saw one chick as well as 2 parent waterhens, and saw the same combination on two other occasions today when I went down there. I've no idea if it's just the one chick or whether there are/were more in what must have been the third brood this year. I do wish they'd bred on that "island" in the duck pond and wouldn't clear off into the ditch when I approach, IT'S NOT SAFE ALONG THE DITCH with cats and foxes about. Let's hope this little one survives at least, I saw one of the parents taking great care of it on the logs at the back of the pond, feeding it while it was cheeping away.

Tuesday, 28th July 2009

The baby waterhen was inside the "island" enclosure this morning when I 'opened up shop'. So far so good. Not so good was the sight of the bushy-tailed cat coming back from that direction, bouncing and full of the joys, and disappearing towards home through the stile ............. but that was first thing before I went out.

Because I didn't take any photos yesterday I thought I'd go overboard today with a bonanza of 11!

A couple of weeks ago or so I started leaving one section of the E-fence open to give the two groups the opportunity to join up again. Well, now and again I could hear loud protests at the duck pond indicating that our two rogues BBD and Blob were on a raid down there. This morning I was in the garden and saw the 7 go through the opening, so I shot off to get the camera.

This photo shows where we go in and out of the E-fence, and the close-up is of the cedar whose crown I lifted last Wednesday before going to Carl's. It had been so difficult to get by those prickly branches which went right down to the ground. Gerd, can you see how I've started to "spiral" one of the junipers [front, left] you grew for me?

The group of 7 had stopped just behind the cedar you can see above, and from the look of her beak it seems that Fanny [far left in this little pic] has found something to eat.

Of course, as soon as I turned up with the camera the 7 started to move away...........

.............. and eventually into the field:

The two groups didn't quite join, as can be seen in this photo:

I don't really mind, considering that it was the beginning of August last year when they joined after I let them find their own way together. At least they've started the process now, even though I haven't seen the 7 brave the duck pond yet. Here they are on their way towards it:

I went to have a look after lunch to see if the 7 were still down there - they were, but still not in the pond:

It's just gone 4 in the afternoon now, and having heard loud nattering nearby I looked out and saw the 7 diving into their food and water buckets behind the garage. They must have run out of food down at the duck pond, I'd better go and take a look .........