weekend photos

The night from Friday to Saturday was the coldest we had in England this winter.  I know some of my 'ducky' friends in Germany can only laugh at -16º overnight [recorded at Holbeach, Lincolnshire], they're relieved when it goes down to that in the daytime from-23º in some cases.

An unusual sight presented itself to me on Saturday, after lunch, our 10 lively youngsters just lying on the ground with undercarriages pulled in as runners do when it's very cold:

 I went out with fresh water and the camera and found that water buckets and pond had frozen over again during the day, and when I went to clean the huts the droppings had frozen inside the huts as well as all over the ground.  To enable the 10 to roam a little further than their enclosure and find some open patches of earth under shrubs/trees and next to the house to dig their beaks in I shifted their fence, sort of divided the garden from the water tap at the garage down towards the ditch.

They didn't make use of their expanded space right away, they concentrated on getting out of the way of my camera:

 

Then I went down to the big pond to check on food and water of the 5 - they were fine, just restricted in a small patch of water:


By this time the sun was setting and I took photos in both directions:

There was a little robin hopping around which moved every time I'd managed to focus the camera on him - I only got one fuzzy picture:




Photos of the ducks investigating the new fence position I got yesterday, Sunday 12.2.12, morning:




They went to investigate several more times to see if they could go on their normal route to the big pond, but luckily the little fence proved sufficient as an obstacle.

One time I could see that Captain had brought 3 of his girls to see why the usual invasion from the 10 hadn't taken place  -  there was no confrontation, both groups went their own way again.

I was pleased to see that the fence further down in the garden stopped a breakthrough there, as well.  The 10 accepted the situation and went 'back home'.

A little later in the afternoon I could take these four shots while sitting in my armchair in the sun room.  I said to John "shall I open the door to see if they remember where they spent their first 2 weeks and come in?"  "DON'T", he said, "they might!"

 

 
 .... I really must stand that poor fallen stone owl up again when the ground has thawed.  I blame cat Lucy next door for knocking it over - she's always trying to hide down there on the watch for little birds .......