November05
Tuesday, 1st
Creatures of habit they are, just like children. We'd forgotten to put their food container into the garage overnight, and as it had rained it got soaked. So I put fresh food into one of the big flat containers they had when they were little, and put that down for them in the usual place. You should have seen them skirting round it with sideways glances as if it might jump up and bite them, as they went to snuffle among the fallen leaves instead - a favourite pastime of their's recently. They didn't go near the food for 20 minutes!
Fanny has continued laying every day since she re-started on 28.10. I'm really glad. I missed those eggs.
It's been a big clean-up day today. The apple tree pond is small compared to the duck pond they still won't go into (when they were standing near it the other day I threw 3 of them in hoping the others would follow, but all three hopped out again instantly), and even though they are only in it early morning and just before turning in it gets green and smelly.
We started pumping the water out at 08.30; it took nearly 3 hours and I had to empty the "dregs" with buckets. As the level was going down I could see how slimy and slippery the sides were, and any ledges absolutely thick with gloopy, stinky sediment, 5 inches of it in places and of the consistency of frog spawn! When trying to scoop it up it clung together and wobbled about just like it. It only seems like the other day when we cleaned it last, but just reading up about it it was early August, 3 months ago. We shall have to do it more frequently in future!
I finished cleaning it out about 12.30 when we started the re-filling (which took 4 hours). We had to laugh when we spotted all the ducks splashing and diving like crazy in it when it was only half full. They must really enjoy a bath in clean water!
One of my
birthday presents from Uschi was this brilliant book on keeping runner
ducks by Bjoern Clauss. Although I've obviously got other books on this
subject and garnered no end of information from the internet (Caroline
Crocker's web site having been the best help, and instrumental in rearing
our ducklings), I found this book very informative with lots of practical
tips on all subjects, and also very funny. Thank you, Uschi, and thank
you, Bjoern! For those of you who can read German, his web site is www.laufis.de
.
Sunday, 6th
Nasty, wet day today. I cleaned the hut out first thing (contrary to what I said about cleaning out only every other day and "top dressing" the bedding in between after I left the water bucket out of the hut, I very quickly reverted to doing the clean-out every day. I found it quicker and easier) and left the food container inside the hut. Now, I thought our ducks were clever and observant, and they certainly saw me putting the food in there, water bucket nearby. Would they go in? No!
Instead, they kept running to the two places near the frog pond where we usually put the container, looking into the door of the conservatory where we were having our morning coffee saying "where have you put our food?" - well, that's what it sounded like. John relented in the end and fetched it, putting it under the bench to stop the layers' pellets from getting soggy.
The rain doesn't bother them at all, and now they're fully feathered
I don't worry, either. I saw Splodge having a sleep, head tucked under
wing, in the pouring rain! Stepping out of the conservatory door to take
a snap I startled them:
But in just that short time I got drenched on the step.
Then the rain got really heavy. I snapped these next 2 pics through the
conservatory windows!!
Having arranged yet another sort-of-birthday-party for last Thursday,
3rd, because that was the only night friends Frances and Alan could make
it, we had to go ahead without them in the end as Frances was very ill
with flu. Hope you get better soon, Fran! My friend Pearl was poorly,
too, and couldn't come, but the rest of us had a very pleasant evening.
Fanny stopped laying again after producing a string of 7 eggs. I do hope she's "brewing up" another lot, and in 2 or 3 weeks' time I'm hoping the other two girls will have a go.
Can't think of any other news at the moment apart from this shocker that happened yesterday:
Late morning, about 11.30, I took a bucketful of self-seeded hawthorns to plant along the fence with next door, where I hang the hammock under the huge ash. I had only just put the bucket down when I saw a fox dashing by, and then another, towards Peter's (chickens) house. They both looked about the same size. I'm not at all sure whether they were two males disputing territory, or a male pursuing a vixen, or two of either sex running away from ... what? Was there a hunt going on nearby? I just don't know. I may sound callous, but I do hope that somebody gets them - I don't want any more heartache with ducks or chickens.
Yes, the foxes do worry me, but I can't get worked up about the bird flu threat at all. I believe it is vastly overblown by the government and the media. All that stuff about 50,000 people may die if the virus mutates. How many HAVE died? 60. In Asia. I believe the figure for people dying in this country of "normal" flu is 15,000.
And what about this threat of migrating birds bringing the virus to this country? As I understand it, once a bird gets this virus it gets sick and dies very quickly, and sick and dead birds surely don't migrate?
Wednesday, 9th
Nice, sunny - if fresh - day today. Both John and I were busy tidying the beds under and next to the fallen ash tree, which is not far from the dedicated duck pond. We were throwing worms to the ducks, ever closer to the pond, hoping they'd go in eventually.
No result, so I fetched their food container and bucket of water and
put them next to the pond. You can see on these two photos how thick with
duck weed the pond is, and they could have a field day in there once they
dare to go in ............. but still no luck!
Friday, 18th
Better do some catching up before November runs out!
I can't report any progress on those 2 scenes above - they still haven't
gone in. Last Sunday I spent about an hour enticing them ever nearer with
spaghetti (yes! I found out from my German runner duck book that they
like noodles among other things I hadn't thought of giving them, and they
love pasta), but you can see on this picture
how close they got without actually taking the plunge. The arrows point
to the bits of spaghetti they haven't dared go and take.
Instead, while I was sitting on a section of tree trunk on the edge of
the pond to encourage them, they ventured into the field: 
By the looks of this they found plenty to eat! And doesn't the field look
nice the way John has mowed it -
like a Japanese garden, don't you think?
I think it was Wednesday morning we first had a thin sheet of ice on the ponds. They came out with a rush as usual and broke it up as they crashed in. That didn't work this morning, though! They all skidded and floundered on a substantial layer of ice which only broke through under the beam. It looked hilarious and I couldn't help laughing, but they were scared witless to the extent that they wouldn't touch food and water until 10 minutes later.
I broke up the ice on the apple tree pond, but that frightened them even
more. So they decided to go for their morning splash in the frog pond
...... but that was worse. They kept tapping the frozen edge with their
beaks, then sat down resignedly until, some time later,
John broke the ice down there and they had a small area to swim in:
Keen gardeners will spot in this photo that I've been rather late in seeing
to the gunnera's winter protection.
The apple tree pond froze over again during the day, and when I went to shut the ducks in tonight at 10 to 5 they were already in the hut!
Saturday morning, 19th
Trying to avoid a repeat performance of yesterday when they flew out of the hut and skidded off the ice, I went all around the pond and broke up the ice (which was even thicker today) BEFORE letting them out, to give them a chance of their morning splash. Guess what happened ........... they wouldn't come out of the hut! Scared by the noise of the ice-breaking, I guess.
They did come out a little later, but wouldn't go into the water with
ice floes. Only one of the girls tried a quick dip and came straight out
again. I closed the gate this morning to prevent them running to the bottom
of the frog pond again in the hope of finding water that moved. They seemed
quite resigned to their fate. Shot this picture from the upstairs window:
It's 20 past 10 now, and the sun has been hitting the pond for some time.
I've just spotted Fanny swimming in it, so maybe they'll get to have some
fun in the water today after all!
Monday, 21st
Yes, they did swim in the water all day from mid-morning, and they did
yesterday as well. They must also have got used to the sound of the ice-breaking
before the hut is opened, because they nearly all flew straight into the
icy water from the top of the ramp. The water was still thick with ice
floes when I took this photo about quarter to four:
Another thing I noticed was that they were doing an awful lot of "nibbling"
at the small chunks of ice, and I'm sure they swallowed some bits. Could
it be they like ice lollies???
This morning the layer of ice did not seem quite so thick, but their dash into the water was a little reticent as I had little Leah standing next to me. Anything out of the ordinary and it checks them .................................
Tuesday, 29th
They had their first experience of snow yesterday. It came down in very thick and wet flakes yesterday afternoon in particular, and it was so thick and made it so dark that it was pointless trying to take photos. I had a phone call from our neighbour Gladys, wondering if everything was alright with the ducks as they looked agitated. She thought there might have been an intruder frightening them.
I thought that was very nice of Gladys (She can see the ducks from her garden. She also phoned me when she found a mangle of pheasant feathers and worried about a fox being around), but I was able to reassure her that all was well and that they were frightened at their first sight of snow. I'd been keeping an eye on them from the upstairs window while making Christmas cards.
Since their disappointment when they found the frog pond frozen on Friday 18th they haven't gone down there at all. We shall very soon have to pump out the apple tree pond again as they spend all their time in it and around it, and it is getting very murky. All the sprouting grass from the seed I had sown is gone again; the whole area around is a sea of mud with lots and lots and lots of ducky footprints in it - very treacherous when frozen in the mornings!
The heron has been paying us fairly frequent visits, encircling the duck pond but - to my knowledge - never catching anything in it. I don't think the ducks are aware of it, but they do get regular visits from the food-pinching pheasant whom they dare not chase. Nor the magpies or other big birds. They do have a go at chasing away the little birds - cowards, eh?