I do my ironing in front of a large window which gives me a great view of the area around the duck huts and the garden as far as the big pond where 16 of our 17 spend nearly all their time. What was the big attraction, I wondered, there are 2 perfectly good ponds for them nearer the house they used to be happy to make use of. OK, it's BIG, and BIG seems to be very important in the animal world - which is why our 'scaredecats'-ducks will not chase away the pheasants or even crows/jackdaws/magpies, but make a big show of chasing away sparrows, robins and even blackbirds, big brave things, ha! Whatever our little lot get up to in the big pond, they like to be left alone doing it, because as soon as I turn up with the camera they jump out and run into the field. At least during winter I can see that they're there all the way from the house.
You'll remember how very eagerly the 10 who usually sleep in the duck shed used to dive into their breakfast bowls - but since the delights of the big pond were discovered they ignore them and run straight down there [fly, in Honey's case]. It does seem to have stopped the pheasants who don't like putting their heads under water and can only pick off what floats on the water surface [and then wait around until the dry food is put out and tip the containers over!]. But while ironing I saw something I never noticed before, there was a magpie fishing out shell noodles, again and again, eating a little, then picking up two or three together and flying off with them - I know it's been a mild winter, but surely they can't be nesting yet? I shall have to watch out when there's Spaghetti in the bowl, to see how the thieving magpie copes with that!
I picked up the camera and got a couple of blurry photos - the magpie stopped fishing when a cock pheasant came up to see what had been dropped, and then our mob turned up from the big pond to dive into their delayed breakfast and were gone again in a flash:
All was peaceful again in a moment.
I was thinking that I had been a very bad "duck mummy" [Pam in Phoenix will know what I'm on about] the morning before. I had been running a little late with the duck breakfast run and could hear the 10 in the duck shed creating a rumpus, demanding to be let out. So I decided to do their bowls first and let them out BEFORE sorting Anke and Captain at the big pond, thinking they'd come back for their wet food when finding nothing to steal down there. No, they didn't, they stopped in the pond, and when I arrived the 4 girls from Dotty's hut had joined the 10 and were equally bewildered at the change in their routine. I didn't want them interfering when I was getting all the water and food ready, so I chased all 14 up the hill towards the garage, thinking they might take the hint and get their breakfast. They didn't. They tried all different access routes to the pond only to be chased off again by me, all the way to the duck shed and the two bowls the last time.
Eventually all was ready at the big pond, Anke and Captain were out and eating their breakfast, so I finally let the crowd 'hovering' by the formal garden join them.
A little while later I heard quacking outside the house and saw Honey coming out of Dotty's run. She was walking more awkwardly than normal and kept stopping. I felt very bad then for having chased them all several times, it must have worn her out, she only seems to have one flight a day in her ..... It didn't take long for Honey to recover, though, I saw her toddling off in the direction of the big pond - and I decided to never let the top lot out again until the bottom two have been sorted!
It's a good job ducks don't bear grudges, when I was digging out twitch on Thursday afternoon they were very happy to join me in the hunt for worms:
While down there I noticed that the Christmas tree I re-planted seems to be doing well and shooting out some buds:
And finally, I've been doing a bit of work along the fence where Dotty often sits, filling in hollows with "mole soil" and putting grass and thyme on top so that she can sit on some plants rather than in the mud:
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