September

1.9.04

Quite a few things have changed since I last wrote.

Neither the moorhens nor the ducks have been back to the bottom pond by the house, the "frog pond". In fact the ducks have not been to this part of the garden around the house at all since the waterhens abandoned the nest. The last egg "disappeared" from the nest a couple of days ago. Not sure who took it, but John saw a squirrel go down the steps into the pond, and also saw it going into the top pond.

We see one or other of the waterhens every day in the area around the duck pond, but we think it is too late in the year for them to be nesting now.

The ducks have been losing an awful lot of feathers recently, it must be their moult. Their plumage looks a lot darker now.

And Rudolpho has given up chasing!

5.9.04

And then there were three

I'm extremely sad to have to write that the first duck died this morning, Pearl. John found her lying dead in the duck house.

I had let the ducks out yesterday morning, and had been very worried to see Pearl continuously opening her beak and heaving her chest, as if gasping for breath. I consulted the Indian Runner Duck Association web site, and among their list of domestic waterfowl diseases two seemed to fit Pearl's problems:

1. Aspergillosis, with symptoms of laboured breathing - which can also be a symptom of pneumonia - caused by spores from mouldy bedding, especially hay, and

2. respiratory problems, which have their cause in a bacterial infection, especially in spells of intensely wet weather.

In my panic I jumped to the conclusion that it must have been spores from mouldy bedding (their food had always been perfectly fresh) which caused her problems and blamed myself - some weeks ago I had noticed that the wood shreddings we use for bedding contained some leaves which had gone damp and started to go mouldy.

I scrubbed out the duck house with strong disinfectant, paying attention to every nook and cranny so as to kill all fungal spores, hopefully, then hosed it out and let it dry in the strong sunshine.

And then I remembered seeing the ducks absolutely drenched in the almost continuous downpours we had recently. Could that, combined with losing so many top feathers in the moult, have caused Pearl's illness? She had always been the smallest and most timid of the four.

Pearl's condition appeared to be improving during the day. Although her body still seemed to be hiccoughing she no longer opened her beak as before. What's more she very competently fought off the others when we threw her some worms. I was also very pleased to see that the other three hardly left her side, and rushed back to her after foraging just a few metres away.

So, when Pearl led the line-up into the duck house when I went to shut them in at half past eight I had high expectations of her recovery. It was a terrible shock to hear she had died. What a sad day. We also heard that Julie and Andy's cat Nell had died that morning, just before they returned from holiday. What a shame that it was Richard's birthday too - my wonderful nephew who created this web page for me.

6.9.04

John buried our duck Pearl today, in the field near Hamish's ashes and tree. It was strange how our remaining three never ventured away from the pond yesterday - as if they expected their fourth musketeer to turn up again any moment.

20.9.04

"Strange how the ducks don't go gar from the duck pond now" John said to me today. It is true. They have only been a short way into the field, and only come to see what we're digging up when we're within sight of their pond. And then they don't come as close as they used to and seem frightened. I blame myself for this as it all started with me chasing them away from the frog pond to keep them away from the waterhens' nest. I must have really frightened them, and I'm very, very sorry I ever did that.

Now I have to try and regain their confidence and slowly lure them back towards the house - there are too many slugs in the flower borders! Rudolpho did me a good turn the other day when I was weeding and found a bamboo cane absolutely studded with little slugs: he picked off every one of them!