June

1.6.04

John's birthday celebrations being over it is time to pick up the diaries again. We had 17 visiting altogether, family and friends, and rather than finding Rudolpho a pain for his chasing he was much admired for his spunk and never-ending energy to "have a go".

He certainly gave us lots of laughs.

Something else that gave us a good laugh was the "Wimbledon crowd" as Annie dubbed them. The four ducks were lined up at the pebble side of the frog pond while we were having our lunch outside. Lots of dragonflies and damselflies were flitting about over the ponds as well as birds, and Annie suddenly noticed the ducks' heads moving from side to side, in unison, just like the crowd do watching tennis - absolutely hilarious.

Unfortunately the ducks didn't oblige when the picture was taken, but it looked a bit like this:

Resting places

You know how runner ducks are always "on the go", always in a hurry. This feverish activity does take its toll, though, and I often see them having a rest and a sleep. That can be anywhere in the field or garden, and you often don't see them until you have a really good look. Here they are half hidden behind the Pieris and the Potentilla,

but here right in the middle of the path, with Pearl keeping a watchful eye:

6.6.04

The ducks and the moorhen

This morning I was standing by the upstairs window with a first cup of tea, watching little rabbits scooting here, there and everywhere (John will be pleased!), the pheasants going around the duck house area picking up spilled food and - a moorhen swimming on the duck pond again. Everybody obviously making free before the duck patrol came out.

John let them out a little earlier than usual, and they soon had their patch cleared of intruders. Except, the moorhen kept coming back. Valentino chased it across the pond and it escaped over the tree branches I stacked at the ditch side of the pond, Rudolpho chased it into the orchard but it doubled back round the duck house and into the ditch. A little later I saw the ducks pursuing the moorhen across the pond to a point on the left of the stack of branches, and it looked as if something black was taking a swipe at the lead duck.

Could there be a nest, I wondered. After lunch John and I had a walk down there and, sure enough, there was one, with four eggs in it! We were very excited as neither of us had seen a waterhen's nest before.

We sat down for a while watching and waiting to see if the hen would come back and sit on the eggs. The ducks kept going back to that spot, nibbling along the edge of the pond and tugging at the long grasses. I was afraid the nest might fall into the water as it was somewhat overhanging the pond.

We decided to move away from the pond and watch from a distance, and after a short while the moorhen returned to the nest. We're not sure if both parents are tending the nest, but we heard moorhen noises in the ditch area lots of times and also saw one or the other on top of the stack of tree branches. Once we saw Valentino rear up at the nest site, and the moorhen gave him a peck on the beak, just like the chicken used to do!

7.6.04

There are definitely two moorhens around the nest. I saw two of them go down the branches into the pond and having a swim. One of them returned to sit on the nest again very quickly after - I bet it was the woman!

The moorhens didn't go back on the water once the ducks were out. The drakes in particular kept going back to the nest site and received a peck on the "nose" when they got too close:

They weren't so keen to investigate after that!

When I saw the moorhen leave the nest at lunchtime I had a quick look at the nest, and now there were 5 eggs in it!

8.6.04

A very sad and quick end to the moorhens' nest. I was up at 6 six this morning, worrying about Helmut's operation, doing some ironing and watching the wildlife through the window. I was surprised and concerned that I saw nothing of the moorhens, and when I went down later to investigate I saw the disaster:

the nest had been destroyed. I had seen one of the moorhens last night about half past six, walking along the tree branches, and everything had been fine. And early this morning this - I suspect magpies. There were several about in the area.

10.6.04

Today is the day I was hoping the eggs in the incubator would hatch, but nothing so far. Maybe I didn't keep the temperature constant.

Something further to "nests all over the place". No sooner had I written about the nests under the broom and under the viburnum as being in use at present than I never saw another egg in them. Looks like the "girls" like changing their laying places, and they don't like using them any more once they have been discovered.

This theory of mine appears to have received confirmation this morning. 3 ducks were going here, there and everywhere, but Gertie was nowhere to be seen. John thought he'd seen her in the long border next to the orchard, but I couldn't spot her at all.

A little later, planting antirrhinums across from the long border, I heard soft noises coming from there when the other three ducks were in the area. And then Gertie emerged, there was a joyful reunion with the others doing their head bobbing dance, and off to the pond.

Of course, I had to investigate. Gertie had come from under the variegated lonicera bush, but all I could see was this:

I had to go down on my hands and knees to look underneath the bush, and there were two eggs! One must have been from yesterday when we found none.

I decided to leave them there, to see if Gertie will go there again tomorrow and lay another one.

While having a cup of coffee near the fence I noticed how the ducks with their frequent passage into the field and back have made little tunnels through the tall grasses along the fence, and they're brilliant at "duck"ing, ha ha!, as they go under the lowest fence bar:

By the way, have I mentioned that Valentino has lost his curly tail feather as well? Rudo's appears to be growing again.

13.6.04

All about eggs

Yes, Gertie did lay a third egg the next day into that "secret" nest under the lonicera, I saw her go straight there after I had let the ducks out. And yesterday, Saturday, the same when John let them out. He saw four eggs in there afterwards.

This morning I was very keen to see if there would be five, and took the camera. But the nest was empty! I was totally baffled. John and I had already decided to take 4 eggs out and leave Gertie with one for her to start another clutch. Who could have stolen them? There were no traces of intruders, no bits of egg shell, nothing. I don't think it was birds because the nest was so well hidden. Some kind of night raider, perhaps. If it was hedgehogs I don't mind at all. But I wouldn't be happy if it were rats or a fox ...

There was one little bonus on the egg front this morning. John had found an egg that Pearl had laid yesterday morning, under the purple spreading geraniums almost opposite to Gertie's place, and he'd left it there to see if Pearl would oblige again today. That egg was still there, and we brought it in. Whoever stole Gertie's four didn't find that one.

And I also found an egg under the broom, and I'm wondering whether Gertie laid this one in an "old" nest when she found all her clutch gone. I was busy cooking so I never noticed which one of the two went there.

As concerns the eggs I've been trying to hatch in my make-shift incubator, I've been reading up about hatching and incubating on the Domestic Waterfowl Club site - something I really should have done well before I started my little experiment. It turns out that duck and turkey eggs start hatching after 28 days, not 25 as I read somewhere else. And I found out that I've been doing all sorts of things wrong, and I'm worried now that I've "cooked" the eggs when we had the heatwave.

If I start again I shall get a thermometer and a proper incubator, and candle the eggs first as I now know how to do it.

14.6.04

It was easy this morning. I spent most of it watering the garden, so I could keep an eye on Gertie who was trying several places - but not the one where her 4 eggs had been removed - for laying (Pearl had already left us her egg in the duck house.) After going under the broom three times and coming out again to try elsewhere, she finally settled there and produced an egg.

What tickled me was the way she stuck her neck out a couple of times to check on the others. Once she almost appeared at the side of the bush and chattered away at Rudolpho who was trying to run after the others. I really wasn't sure what she was saying. Could have been: "Don't go away so far this time, I shan't be long!", or "Don't you go spending all your time at the pub while I'm stuck here doing the housework!"

24.6.04 Various urges

The "girls'" nesting urge seems very strong, particularly Gertie's. I've seen no end of big hollows under various shrubs and thickets, the most recent under the lavender and honeysuckle in the bed just in front of the conservatory. And even though we've not found eggs in any of them they keep making these hollows. It's as if the old nests just aren't good any more - maybe, like some housewives, they feel the need for a new suite of furniture from time to time, or could it be because the eggs were taken from them??

I have the feeling that the ducks hate being left on their own, so after feeling the urge to lay they go into one of these nests but come out again when the others have run off to enjoy themselves. And then the egg just pops out anywhere when the time comes - we have found two lying among the pebbles at the lower pond and a number of shells in field and garden. In the duck hut we only find an egg now and again at present, also the membrane of one, twice.

The mating urge is not so apparent now we're in mid-summer, but just as I was thinking this I saw Gertie being "done" by both drakes on the frog pond pebbles.

And Rudo's urge to chase continues, everything and everyone turning their backs. He backs off himself when we face him or move towards him. Seeing pidgeons seems to get him particularly excited, and he goes for them with great gusto. I burst out laughing the other day when I saw him run up behind one which was having a nice time in the bird bath by the garage, and plucking a bundle of feathers out of the pidgeon's rear end!

You think I'm making it up? Certainly not! Rudolpho came back with a bunch of feathers in his beak and what looked like a smirk on his face.

What did the pidgeon do? It took off, of course!

29.6.04

We were very upset when the moorhen's nest was destroyed, but as we could still see one or two of these birds on the duck pond, in the orchard, and then increasingly below the house near the shallow end of the frog pond, we began to hope that the moorhens might try and nest again, this time near our house.

One day I saw Rudolpho - followed by the other three - chasing a moorhen right to the pebbles by the pond. Rather than flying off the little bird turned and fought Rudo, flapping its wings like mad and then escaping into the mass of oxeye daisies on the bank of the frog pond. It peered out from there to check on the ducks, but they didn't follow. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera to capture the scene.

We were convinced there was a nest in there, particularly as John saw a moorhen run and fly out from that area when he was mowing the grass below the pond. But then I began to wonder as the moorhens, whenever they returned to the frog pond, swam into the reeds on the right, out of my vision, away from the daisy bank. And then I saw one a couple of times with nesting material in its beak heading straight for the patch of reeds hidden by the gunnera in this picture:

Every time one arrived I could hear the little "chuck" sound they make and then - I presume the one that had been sitting or guarding the nest - would leave, a handover/takeover thing I imagined, like "ok, it's your turn to go out now".

This afternoon I finally saw the nest, quite by accident. I was righting the zebra grass that had fallen over in the left hand corner of the top (fish) pond, standing on the edge of what had been the narrow middle pond (after cracking with the frost one winter it became a bog garden), when the moorhen suddenly took off with a clatter right under my nose. I looked down and there it was, woven into the reeds at the corner, with six eggs in it!

I quickly pushed the leaves of the reeds back together again after taking this photo to make sure it was hidden. Lots of pidgeons come to drink at the pond and I didn't want them to see it, nor did I go back to check if the moorhen had returned in case I scared it off or drew attention to the site - I should hate this one to be destroyed as well. Maybe it being so close to our house offers it some protection.

Just looked up on moorhens on the internet. Apparently the average clutch of eggs in a nest is 8! And males and females do share the sitting and feeding of the young, with females doing more of the guarding and fighting and the males doing more of the sitting. Unusual about these birds is also that the youngsters from a previous brood stay around and help feed the latest clutch. I do hope we get to see this!

I've noticed that our ducks don't spend much time in or around the bottom pond now - did the fight with the moorhen make an impression on them?