I've come to the conclusion ....

..... that the best way to keep all intruders away from our ducks is being out in the field all day - well, most of the day.  Monday, Tuesday and yesterday I've been out there until late mending sections of the fence, yes, it takes a lot of patience but there's entertainment, too.

Yesterday I tackled the fence section behind the big pond which was badly ripped, and as I was close to the ducks' food supply my mere presence kept away the pigeons, jackdaws, mallard ducks and pheasants.  We don't see so many of them these days [I wonder if all those dozens of hen pheasants we would see all day are sitting on clutches of eggs now?], but one male with his three females still makes the rounds, and on his round must have been the food supply I was near to.  I found it hilarious the way one or two of this group were poking their heads out of the hedge now and again to see if I was still there.

Another bit of entertainment was seeing Captain come helter skelter wing flapping from the nature pond, hot in pursuit of something - surely he couldn't be chasing Anke, no need.  Then the chase came nearer, it was a mallard duck he was trying and failing to catch!

When I'm in the field or tidying up in the ditch I let Captain and his two out as they are so keen to explore, and it never takes them long to be far out and go on to the nature pond and stay there about an hour before trailing back:

 










I think Captain only has one brain cell, it took him ages walking up and down on the inside of the fence and pushing against it to find where Anke and Candi had slipped through ... until he eventually found where I'd opened it.

Mending the fence is a long job, it had been ripped open all its length at the bottom.  I used to blame just the wild rabbits, but now I think the pheasants are even more guilty - I suppose those round black things at the junctions look a bit like pheasant berries   ....  ?

I use rolls of twistable garden wire for mending, so far I've used up five rolls of it in varying shades of green, 170 metres of it, and I have another few metres of broken fence to mend before I can hope to contain our escapees - but I bet Anke will still manage to slip out, underneath if not through.  As long as those pesky pheasants don't rip my mended sections to pieces again, I saw them this afternoon up from the ditch and trying to push their way in to behind the pond and the duck food - they can fly for heaven's sake!

Funny scene on Tuesday evening.  I saw this little face peeping out from behind the pond: cat Lucy!  She was quivering with excitement, fixing her eyes on a cock pheasant.  By the time I'd got the camera out she'd ducked [arrow] and the pheasant had moved on.