ducky PS

Just a few photos and update on ducks old and new:

The 6 new girls are on the right here.  2 fawn coloured [which I've wondered about calling Caramel and Honey, or Toffee as Val suggested last night] and the 2 tallest of the 6, very pale in colour - the one almost white with yellow beak reminds me strongly of our last fox victim Jedda, the other one has a green beak [top right with back to camera], and I can't think  of a name for either of them.  I had wanted to call one of the new ones 'Peanut' for no reason whatsoever, but none of them seems to fit that name.  The last 2 of the 6 are much darker in colour, one almost the same as our Beyoncé only paler, and the other very similar to Anke and Michael and Pine's "Pünktchen" [meaning 'little dot'], dark brown with white chest markings.  I thought of calling her Dotty, and Carl suggested Mocha - I like both of those names.  Feel free to suggest others!  The two boys in the picture are Joseph [green beak] and Ben.

It's not always as peaceful looking as in the photos above, yesterday I thought I'd see two of the new girls having a big fight - no, it's not usual this time of year, girl fights tend to take place in the autumn for the favour of the boys - and just now I heard a big noise coming from a fight below, and when I looked it was Bless and the tall pale new one with green beak.  Maybe they were the same two I saw fighting yesterday when Tuts and Jay-Z tried to separate them to no avail.  I'm sure they're trying to sort out the hierarchy in the group.

As regards going into the pond, I don't think our new 6 could have been used to one, same as Anke and Lane were not.  Yesterday morning, as I was filling the water containers near the frog pond, the 13 were cornered and fled into the water - but were all out again in seconds.  But this afternoon I heard lots of noise and splashing, and lo and behold, all had gone into the frog pond voluntarily:

Billie-Jean and Gertie continue sitting on their eggs; Gertie comes out more often and longer than B-J, but I've seen both drinking and eating and having a wash&brush up.  If those eggs hatch I shall have to make some quick changes to the area regarding protection from above [crows, magpies take ducklings and cats can also kill them], and I will drain the pond till they're big enough.

Poor Candida looked yesterday as if she'd had a hole pecked into her head.  John tells me he saw a couple of the drakes pursue her right into her hut where she obviously felt safe.  So this morning I've put some closer mesh fencing against the 2 places where I've seen our rampant boys go in and out of Candy's enclosure, I hope that keeps them out now for her to recover.

Did I write that I used my fabulous new pressure washer a week ago [hot, sunny Saturday] to give the bottom hut a thorough clean-out?  It was a doddle!  All done in quarter of an hour when it used to take half a day, BRILLIANT!