March06

Thursday, 2nd Charlotte's birthday [Mia died this morning]

Following on from Tuesday 28th February: Had a look and saw the puddle in the ditch was ever so big. So that had been the attraction ...............

The overnight frosts have grown more severe, and even the puddle in the ditch was frozen yesterday and today. The one in front of the garage they love so much has not thawed out all week. Because our breaking up of the ice on the ponds frightens the ducks we thought we'd leave it to thaw on its own. The sun hits very early on the ditch side of the duck pond and our 8 squash themselves into that little bit of water until the rest melts. But then, because we were away from home until mid-afternoon, I got to worrying in case a daytime fox appeared and the ducks could not save themselves into the water. So today I smashed the ice up again on two ponds to speed up the melting process and give them a chance of escape in an emergency.

There was a commotion over at the duck pond this afternoon, lots of noise and activity. On investigation it turned out that a pair of mallards had landed on the pond, much to the disgust of our runners who, after the first shock, banded together to chase off these intruders.

I can imagine the kind of conversations going on, something like: "Who are they?" "Don't know. Funny looking kind of duck." "Yeah, and they can fly, too. We don't want that kind of foreigner around here." "Right, let's see him off at least - our women might be in danger!" And off they went and pursued the mallard drake right into the ditch.

Saturday, 4th

More mallard trouble for them today. John went and tried to get a snap of our runners seeing them off, but by the time he'd "snook" up the pair were in the field going towards the ditch:

Sunday, 5th March

More mallard trouble for the ducks. But I saw 2 pairs this morning, not 1. And at one stage I thought I saw 2 ducks with the drakes, but it was hard to tell from that distance.

It also looks very comical from this distance, although I'm well aware that it's a serious matter for the birds. The mallards are desperate to pair in the water, but our lot won't tolerate them in there. As soon as one of them glides in one or more of our drakes shoots over and chases the intruder out. They'll suffer the strangers on the shore for a while but then gang up and hunt them into the field or ditch. Then the mallards double back straight into the empty pond and the whole circus starts over again.

As ever when I take photos from a distance so as not to disturb the "wildlife" I've inserted arrows to point out what I wanted to show. In the one on the right you can see our runners who have just come up again from the ditch having chased one pair of mallards down there. The other 2 are still there near the birch where the arrow points.

It was interesting to observe the difference in the walk of the 2 species. After all, runner ducks have been bred from mallards originally, and while they now have a very upright stance and throw their feet out front with scarcely a waddle, the mallards stay down and have a pronounced swing from side to side as they walk. And very slow they are, too, compared to our runners' hurry hurry hurry!

Thursday, 9th March

We've not seen any more of the mallards since Sunday. I was wondering why those two pairs had decided to try and make a new home around our duck pond, and John thought that maybe their own pond had been frozen for so long that they were looking elsewhere and found ours thawing out in the sun. And maybe our 8 told them very firmly where to go ....?

Not much worthy of note has happened since I last wrote. It's been raining a lot from early in the week and the ducks very happily re-discovered favourite puddles and slug-ridden haunts around the garden and the field. In fact they're getting a bit daring going about half-way along the big field - if a fox did turn up in the daytime they'd have a job to escape from there.

The egg-laying has continued with the full complement of 3 every day except on 2 days since February 23rd. I think that's pretty wonderful. On about 4 occasions though, when there had been just 1 or 2 in the hut in the morning, we've found additional ones in the afternoon around the bog garden next to the duck pond - and yesterday was the first time we were too late to "rescue" them; one had been half eaten. As our duck Gertie used to have the same habit of "dropping" her eggs all over the garden I feel pretty sure that Olive and Lily are her daughters.

I'm looking forward to Saturday now when Mel from Seagrave is coming with daughter Saffia and German daughter Susanne to pick up incubator and eggs to try and hatch some more runners!

Monday, 13th March

It was great meeting Mel and the girls on Saturday after corresponding for some weeks. They went away with the incubator and 16 eggs and have now started the incubation process. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them.

More mallards today! 6 of them this time. We were just having our morning coffee break in the conservatory and watching our ducks return from the field at a steady run. All of a sudden all 8 flapped their wings like mad and flew the last couple of yards into the duck pond. That must have been the moment when the 6 mallards flew in. I saw a group of one drake with two females and another with 2 drakes and 1 female. Looks like the same problems occur in nature: too many blokes!

Our runners spent a lot of time chasing the 2 groups in turn, Rudolpho style, like this,:
but without much success until John went to have a look and they all flew off.

Tuesday, 14th March

The ducks are spending a little more time in their "home" pond again - I suppose they've eaten everything possible in and around the duck pond which now looks as brown as the others. I'm pleased our little horde has never ventured into the fish pond which is above the frog pond (all ponds, to distinguish them, were named by Emmeline and Sarah. "Frog" pond because in Spring it is choc-a-bloc with frogs mating and covered in frog spawn to follow). I feel pretty sure they'd eat all the oxygenators and the small fishes, too. Last year the ducks ate all the frog spawn (except what Carl and family managed to rescue) and any frogs they found as well.

It's got to be the search for food that emboldens our runners to venture further and further afield. John saw them this morning half way across the water meadows next door. Luckily they came back when he called. That's fox country out there!

I could watch them this morning in their pond near the hut while I was getting dressed, and noticed that the three girls went away from the water several times. I bet it's because they're getting "bothered" too much. But then, of course, they have the urge to always be with the others and re-enter the water. I saw Fanny being "got" just as she was trying to get out again. If I see them being harmed I'll definitely separate them.

Tuesday, 21st March

I've let a whole week go by without an entry. Regular visitors to these duck tales sometimes wonder what's amiss when I keep quiet, but all is well!

I was a little premature when I said the ducks are spending a little more time in their "home" pond again. We only see them in that area for many quick gobbles of food and at night around 5 when they are preparing for "bed". Even then they go down to the duck pond several times more - they cover miles in a day! And the frog pond has been totally ignored by them in the last couple of weeks.

I worry about them when I don't see them running around the garden, especially as John has had to chase them back from well within the water meadows next door several times. So yesterday, rather than ordering electric fencing, we thought we'd try a roll of wire mesh we had, first.

While I was tying the mesh to existing barbed-wire fence and saplings (John had gone to get more tools) in the place where even our previous group of ducks had mainly gone through (you can see the attraction on the other side, can't you - mud puddles!),

our 8 skirted around me to the right and went through that still open space. I had to clap them back 3 times, so great was the attraction.

Of course, we ran out of wire mesh. So, in desperation, we fetched some old fence panels, and you can see John fixing them against the open spaces in this photo:

No sooner was this done then the little troope tried to get through in this first place, above. Thwarted, they trailed back up to the pond in single file. I do wish I had had the camera ready - they made a lovely picture going up the steps by the oak. I only caught them back in the pond:


and you can see how they've exposed the liner again - didn't take them long, did it. Finally, I took a shot back towards the house which you don't see too often in these diaries: