June07

Monday, 4th

The last time I wrote it was May - the 27th, I believe. Time to catch up!

Monday week we had a big shock going out at quarter past eight to shut the ducks in: a fox came from behind the house, through the pergola, and at John's shouting ran up the drive and onto the road. We have not seen one again since but it's always worrying, especially when they come that close. John said the ducks behind the garage were all looking towards the house as if they'd been aware of it.

It's been John's birthday week, and on the actual day I took him on a surprise daytrip on a narrowboat.
We had a wonderful time in spite of the rain, seeing great scenery and lots of ducks and ducklings.Then I spent a couple of days doing lots of baking and cooking for the family party on Saturday, and as always for John's birthday parties - it seems - the weather was great.

When I went to get some Lollo Rosso for the party salad I could see only these stumps:

I know who's to blame! I've seen stumps just like these at the edge of the frog pond where certain feathered friends of mine had nibbled down the Zantedeschias in the very same way. Luckily there was a patch with 2 different kinds of lettuce still covered with fleece, and I got plenty for the party.

I managed to take a couple of photos of Chissit's eye yesterday. The treatment with the Tiacil is finished now and I don't catch her any more to put drops into her eye, but I'm continuing with the Euphrasia officinalis [eyebright] drops into her drinking water.

I've put 2 shots of her together here; she's turning her head to show her right eye underneath. I'm still not happy with her left eye, but until we get that dirty pond sorted she may not get back to normal.

Tuesday, 5th June 2007

No sooner do I mention that we hadn't seen a fox since Monday 28th May than we got one barking round the house just after going to bed last night. I couldn't see it but it came from the Post Office garden right underneath our bedroom window, John said. Still, as long as they only come at night ..........

I quite forgot to mention that Harlequin impressed us a few days ago, in the afternoon. I heard cats fighting at the back of the house and went to investigate. There was the black and white cat from across the road, retreating towards the road but keeping a wary eye on a spot near our fence. And there was Harley in one of her spots next to the fence, totally unfazed. Don't know how she managed to repel the intruder, but good on her!

I've just totted up the eggs for May: 148 from the top bunch of 7, 127 from the bottom 6, making 275 in total and an average of 8.87 p/day. I thought there had been fewer than last month, but it's still pretty impressive, I think.

Talking about eggs, did I mention the absolute titchy one, here on the very left,
which we had on Saturday 2nd. It was perfectly formed with a hard shell, and even smaller than the very first "learner" eggs we had from the youngsters last September - there's the shell of one of them in the picture next to the tiny one. The 3 underneath are from Sunday, the blue one on the left I would call "normal" size and 2 large Campbell eggs next to it. The 2 on the very right are the largest we ever had, the white a double-yolker from a Campbell and the brown from one of our chickens which caused the prolapse, also double-yolked. I can't imagine why that tiny egg appeared all of a sudden - I shall keep the shell, of course!

Friday, 8th June 2007

We had a monster busy day in the garden yesterday, and one of the big projects was to clean the pond behind the garage [the much larger duck pond unfortunately has to wait a bit longer for a filter to arrive]. The local residents appreciated the result::

I've ordered some green matting to put around the edges of the pond, it'll look a lot better then. It's no good putting proper grass turves around - tried it many times - they just nibble it all away!

I'm in a philosophical mood again, thinking what nice people gardeners/people-who- grow- things are.

First I received many compliments on how nice our garden was looking while I was busy weeding near the road, and then I had a particularly happy experience when trying to replace a couple of fuchsias. They were treasured gifts from friends, and having lost them [a variety of reasons] I had tried for a long time to find the same kinds again in garden centres and on web sites. I struck gold when I found http://www.waltonnurseries.co.uk/. Roy and Lesley Walton, and particularly their daughter Louise, gave me the kind of customer service one can usually only dream of these days, and I recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone looking for fuchsias.

Another pleasing customer service experience came from Bluebell Nurseries in Smisby. I had rung them on Thursday to find out if they sold artificial grass matting to put around the edges of the pond we were cleaning - as mentioned above. They were busy when I called, I left a message and went to look on their web site. As they didn't sell any I ordered it elsewhere. But this afternoon a very nice young man rang from Bluebell in response to my message, and he told me what they did at their duck pond: put grass turves all around, but cover them with green plastic netting which stops the ducks from nibbling the grass away. What a good idea!!

Saturday, 9th June 2007

Was thrilled to pieces when I went to let the ducks out this morning: there were 3 waterhen chicks running around at the edge of the bog garden, fantastic! I've been longing for years to see some little ones.

Rushed back to get the camera, but by that time "mummy" had her chicks tucked under her:

John and I decided to take our coffee break down there, and thought we could see 4 teeny chicks as we approached.

Of course they all took fright when I got closer with the camera and ran after mum who was calling them behind the logs. One of them went into the water, though, and I got a couple of shots:

But I only got a very hazy picture of all 3 of them
[there are definitely just 3] or 1 or 2 of them
running away - they're quick!

Tuesday, 12th June 2007

I'm always "armed" with the camera now when I go down to the duck pond, but although both John and I have seen all 3 waterhen chicks I've not been able to get them on a picture.

We thought we'd lost one of them to the foxes on Sunday night. When shutting the duck pond 7 in for the night at 8.30 John pointed silently to a spot - less than 50 metres away - on our neighbour's side of the fence. There was a fox cub, nearly fully grown, with something the size of a mouse in its mouth. It looked dark, so I feared it might have been one of "our" waterchicks. Then out of the undergrowth came another cub, and then a third. It's a bit close for comfort this, a whole family of foxes on our doorstep. What's more, John had seen two more foxes crossing the road in front of him when returning from Ibstock. We're "snived out" with foxes, as John would say!

During the last 2 days the waterhens [we've seen both male and female looking after the youngsters] have constructed a nest in between the branches overhanging the duck pond:

I've not seen either waterhen or eggs in it. Whether it was built as a decoy [magpies!!] I don't know, but the little family seem to have made their home among the debris behind the duck pond and the electric fence:

The place where I usually see the babies and a grown-up is just to the left of that old white dog bone sticking up [from previous house owners], in the middle of the very left of this photo.

Everybody retreated when I got closer, and beady eyes were certainly watching me - you can just see a beak in the centre, here's a close-up:


Isn't this exciting? I'm still hoping for pictures of the babies.

I haven't forgotten my other feathered friends, though. Candida gave me a bit of concern yesterday as she spent ages just sitting by herself in the field. She's long got over her limp [Primmie has a slight one now], and she joined the others to go into the hut last night without problem. Don't know what was the matter - maybe she was just tired?

Oh yes, I also found out what makes these 7 form a sort of flower:
Everytime they do this they are nibbling away at a clump of vegetation they've fetched - or which has risen up - from below. Probably the remains of my waterlilies and rushes!

Captain looks a bit ragged at the moment being in his summer moult [as are the other two], but he's still standing proud in the field,
and he's still capable of inflicting damage to the backs of 3 of the Campbell's heads, Pinky in particular has a worse pink/bleeding patch than the others [arrow]:


It doesn't look too bad in that photo, but it has been quite raw at times.

None of the other ducks have been injured by the drakes in this way although the boys have often been ferocious while trying to hold them down. Just the Campbells have been affected because they are larger than the boys - well, it's only Captain there now. I have wondered why Hedda, the largest Campbell, has not shown signs of damage. But I have seen her lying herself flat on the water making it easier for the drake to mate, while the other three struggle and try and get away - maybe that's why.

A lot of youngsters other than the waterchicks have delighted me the last few days: froglets!

We had been watching the tadpoles getting bigger and bigger, and we've also seen newts in the frog pond again, but we hadn't realized the 'metamorphosed' taddies had got out of the pond. It was on Friday afternoon we saw we had to be careful where we put our feet, particularly at the lower end of the frog pond, it was TEEMING with little frogs, hundreds and hundreds of them!

They're such delightful little things, can you see how tiny they are
here in the picture on the left
on the Pulmonaria leaf bottom right.

I must say I had been wondering why our group of 9 so often came to where I'd fenced off the frog pond - they'd obviously found lots of little ones that had strayed beyond the boundary. You can see how keen they are to get back into the pond:

Wednesday, 13th June 2007

Rain late this afternoon, at last! We'd been promised it for some time.

I'm still obsessed with the new little animals around the garden. It's lovely to do a bit of froglet and newt watching with a cup of tea or coffee in our hands, they're fascinating little things:

I caught one in the garage today and put it back into the pond, but I can't stop them from hopping all over the garden and falling victim to a variety of birds - our ducks included.

As regards the waterhens, I was wrong about a couple of things. The nest I pictured yesterday is not a decoy, it is being used. I've seen both adults and chicks in it, and on all the last sightings there were four chicks either in the nest or running away, not 3 as I thought earlier. I just can't get close enough to take decent photographs. These two were taken from quite a distance, but you can make out a couple of the chicks, can't you?

And I saw 4 little ones disappearing under this adult's wings:

Saturday, 16th June 2007

Boy, didn't we have the mother and father of all storms yesterday afternoon, we thought the roof of the conservatory would cave in. And the noise! It was deafening. There was a "river" running down our drive in between heaps of hailstones. At least the ducks appeared to have the sense to seek shelter, I certainly couldn't see them from our windows.

In the excitement I had the camera on the wrong setting and only got this snap of the conservatory door:
The hailstones did an awful lot of damage in the garden, shredding leaves and breaking stalks, the ice "pock marking" the peas, and when we went to shut the ducks in we saw piles of hailstones still nestling in every row and dip. But at least we weren't flooded out like some poor people we saw on the news.

The electricity went off several times [and my broadband connection is still off], and around bed time it caused the garage security light to stay on, giving us a perfect, unwelcome view of 2 fox cubs under the bird-feeder birch near the garage. We think they may be two of those we saw on Sunday evening, in the area where the arrow is pointing:

Still, as I said before, there's not a thing we can do about it, and as long as they only turn up in the middle of the night ..........

I got worried again this afternoon when I didn't see any of the waterhen chicks, just a brief glimpse of an adult. Before leaving the duck pond I thought I'd have a quick look in the ditch behind the pond, and YES, I saw 2 of them and one parent - they've got their own big swimming pool down there:

No, there are no chicks to be spotted on this pic - they were too quick for me. Below is the big puddle in the ditch seen from the top:

Sunday, 17th June 2007

I got lucky this morning, thrilled to get several photos of the waterhens and their 4 chicks:

And just in case you have trouble spotting them I've stuck in some arrows to point them out as they were following
mum and dad behind the logs.

Thursday, 21st June 2007 Midsummer Day and Carl's birthday - have a happy one, Carl!

John's not too thrilled about being half way through the year already, but what can we do about it? We're on the downhill run to Christmas, oh dear oh dear.

With all my euphoria about the waterhen chicks I bet you're wondering whatever happened to the mallards? I'm wondering myself, actually, they must be hanging around somewhere. I've not seen "our" two for ages. The female continued to fly in and land on the pond for a few days after the male seemed to have abandoned her, but our ducks chased her off persistently and I've not seen her in weeks.

The bunch of seven by the duck pond appear to be a lot more tolerant of the waterhens, though. 2 years ago when we had moorhens down there the drakes were forever tugging at their nest and having confrontations with them - not so now. On many occasions, when hoping for a glimpse of the chicks, I could see all 7 ducks on the pond, and on getting closer one or more chicks would suddenly appear from the nearside bank and paddle like fury to get back to the logs. Both the parents and the chicks seem entirely at ease with the ducks - it's just me and John they run away from - and that's in spite of throwing down some duck food for them morning and night! I took these pictures yesterday:

I THINK there's a chick on the branch below the parent
on the left, but I'm not sure.

Did I say something on Saturday about the hail having "pock marked" the peas? Well, on walking around the garden since
then I noticed that it wasn't just the peas - gooseberries, raspberries, pears, plums and ....... apples:

This is only a small section - all our apple trees are very badly affected, I don't know how many of the fruits will develop. Oh, I've just thought, I haven't even checked on the peaches yet ...

Friday, 29th June 2007

The peaches looked alright, by the way. Must be because of the furry skin protecting them.

Annie rang this morning worrying if everything was alright, because there had been no recent entries here. Now come on, it's only just over a week since I last wrote! Seriously, though, I think it's ever so nice that friends and family check up in these diaries to see what's been happening and what I've been up to. Well, I've been gardening a lot [and watching just a teeny little bit of tennis, HONEST!]

Just when I thought Primmie was over her slight limp [compared to Candida's, who belly-flopped a bit at first] she's bad again - those boys! You'd think they'd let off a little while they're moulting. She doesn't keep up with the others very well and sits down a lot, but at least there's no belly flopping with her. And one or two of the others usually keep her company.

I still see the waterhens now and again, a couple of the little ones look quite big. But I have the devil's own job to catch them on camera - they always see me first and scarper! I even slunk through the undergrowth on the hedge side yesterday in the hope of catching them unaware - yes, they are there :

Is this any easier to see?

or this?

You can see in this one that they've spotted me and are off to disappear behind the logs.

I'm delighted they're still around. I even forgive mum [or dad] for plucking lots of hosta and zantedeschia leaves to put around their two nests - one either side of the pond. On this photo below you can see both nests; the one among the logs behind the ducks, and right in front in the middle the little hollow lined with leaves. I've seen the little ones run around the edge of the pond from there or else swim straight across towards the logs.