Yet another catch-up

The photo at the end of my last entry on 11th August turned out to be the last picture I have of our Candida, I found her lying dead in the hut on Thursday morning.  It was a shock, I hadn't seen any deterioration in her condition, although John said when he'd put Captain and Anke to bed the night before Candi had already been inside - she must have felt unwell then.  This is a nice picture of her from last year[she's also right in the middle of the big photo at the head of this blog]:

She was one of the 6 ducks we bought in 2006 from a sort of rescue centre, where unwanted ducks and those with "faults" which made them unfit for showing were looked after by a very nice lady.  We're not quite sure how old she was, a minimum of 8 or 9, maybe even 10 years -she hadn't laid for a year or two.  She was always a very timid duck, and to protect her I'd put up separating fences when the drakes from the other groups got too boisterous and went on raids, but she had a happy and peaceful life within her own group, first as one of 6, then 5 when the fox got Anabelle, and since last May there were just the three of them after Lane and Hedda fell victim to the foxes, too.

So it's just Captain and Anke at the big pond now.  I've removed fences as Anke can look after herself very well and Captain can go on raids again.  Yesterday the two of them came exploring right up to the frog pond where they weren't made welcome exactly but there were no big fights either.  I snapped Anke taking a bath this morning while Captain stood guard: 

Dotty's adventure in the big wide world of keeping in with the crowd lasted only one more day.  I saw what a struggle she had in the evening trying to get back up the ramp into the duck shed, so the following morning I grabbed her as everyone came out of the shed and put her back into the enclosure where she's stayed voluntarily ever since, in fact she often goes back into her hut after breakfast to rest.  I'm glad she seems to realize herself that it was too soon to try and run with the others.  Yesterday I wondered if she'd laid an egg. I had taken 2 eggs out of the nest box in the morning and when I checked in the afternoon there was another egg in there.  Unless one of the other girls had gone back in it might have been hers ...

The enclosure still gets invaded by all the others, they make use of the little pond, but mainly they go in to help themselves to what's in Dotty's personal red food container, they always seem to know when I've put it out for her, the little toerags, and come filing out again as soon as they've emptied it!

The little pool I'd bought for Dotty I fetched out of the fruit cage and sunk it at the foot of the buckthorn opposite the garage.  Honey has adopted it as her own.  As soon as I came anywhere near though she jumps out and hides.

     

(That's Purdy doing a head-nodding run past in front, "your most obedient servant" style)

Honey is not the only one using this little pool, Tuts is particularly fond of it.  It gets dirty quickly and full of feathers at the moment, so I clean it out and refill it every other day .....

My summer cold has not quite cleared up, but it hasn't stopped me from doing lots of jobs in the garden. Ducks LOVE gardening, and none more so than Dash who comes even closer to my little fork than Anabelle used to, and she spots worms much faster than I do!

I've been doing huge "chopping" operations in various places in the garden and the green bin is always very quickly filled - so the pile of greenery in the photo below John very kindly got rid of for me by chasing it through the shredder.

 

To finish for today, ducks on the run through the orchard on their way to the frog pond: