3x ducky breakfast

Never ending, mostly very fine rain we've had today, even the ducks seemed to get fed up with using it for their preening.  Yesterday, though, was a fine day.  John used it to do an enormous amount of grass cutting and I managed to cut three quarters of the pompoms and spirals in the front garden.

[Yes, I do know the rose bed is in dire need of yet another weeding!]

I took the camera with me this morning and managed to capture the quick exit [which blurs the photos] of two of the groups.

 

When the little tykes saw me standing by the hut with the camera they must have thought I had more special breakfast to offer and swam quickly towards me - followed just as quickly by watchful mum Billie.  When I didn't offer them any more they went off to the right and searched themselves.

Doesn't our "Jubilee" have a lovely white chest and belly?

The white frames you can see in the two photos above are from the old conservatory which is going to be built up again in two weeks' time.  In preparation for this John and I fetched four of them out of the enclosure [in the pouring rain and through the mud, and scaring the inhabitants to the far end of the little pond] so that John can clean them up in the garage beforehand.

Leading this little troupe is the little one that hatched tenth, it is exactly three weeks old today.  It ran straight over the "bridge" to join the others.

 

Changing my usual custom I went out of the back gate where the food station is now and frightened these 5 out towards the greenhouse.  When I stepped back a bit they then went - on the shortest possible route as is ducky fashion - back to the gate; Jubilee even went right over the cold frame!

  
In the small picture on the left you can see the 9 little ones and 2 grown-ups had finished their breakfast, these 13 were just starting:

I would never have thought that the dirty bundle we fetched in exchange for the 2 drakes along with [limping] Mocca could turn into this pretty white duck in the middle front of this photo - she was a dirty grey fawn then.

I didn't manage to capture the flying out of these three, must have held the camera askew as I got a lovely shot of the nettles behind the food station!  They always first go into the breakfast bowl with spaghetti, rice, vegetables etc [I continued the custom from the days we gave medicine to Hedda in that bowl].  When I'm on my way back they tackle the grains.

These two photos are for Petra, who wasn't sure what I was on about when I talked about candying the stalks of angelica.  This is usually done in March or April when the stalks are still quite soft -

On the way back from the big pond I found the group of 13 by the bird bath.  It's a shame to see the roses suffering from all that rain...