Definitely Spring now

The old territorial disputes have surfaced again.  I first noticed that the main group of ducks and drakes were spending a lot of time near the house, no longer all day on the big pond.  Anke and Captain at first would come along as far as the garage, but now I can only see the two of them at or in their pond or behind their hut in the field.  Judging by a lot of movement/chasing seen in the distance with accompanying flapping wings I'm guessing that Captain is endeavouring to keep Anke and his pond all to himself - I'm just glad that Candida is no longer with them, she certainly got far too much "attention" from the other three boys last year.

After taking photos of the winter aconites in the sun last Monday I suddenly noticed how the frog pond was almost covered in blanket weed, in fact I only went there with the camera because I thought I'd seen a frog there:

A little later in the day it was noticeable that the main group of ducks was spending more and more time in and around this pond, and the very next day all the green algae had gone - I was just hoping none of them would get ill after eating all that stuff...

The same thing seems to happen year by year, I could replace the three photos above with very similar ones from previous years:

I have seen a crowd like this around the tin tub again this year, but as far as I know nobody has yet repeated these antics of Bless and her big son H-J:

Thursday of this week was a very wet day again, and I went out to take photos of our flock in the field which they keep escaping into:

This is a little picture for daughter Annie and family, their lovely dog Hamish lies buried under this copper beech:









Mud patches and mole hills are still plentiful throughout the garden:

 



















Today, Saturday, started dull and drizzly, but about mid-morning it changed to pleasant and sunny.  From the window I spotted the 2 drakes Tuts and Jay-Z standing guard in front of a duck who was busying herself where Billie-Jean's nest was last year, and when they all came out as John was passing with some fencing material I could see that the duck was Mocca.  Well, making eyes at Tuts must have paid off, she certainly got an escort!

Captain and Anke could be seen in the distance guarding their pond:

 

John has finished PhaseI of his fence mending and this afternoon started digging his main vegetable patch. Anke and Captain were immediately distracted and their pond was re-conquered by the mob:

I got a couple of nice photos of Dotty this morning when collecting eggs  -  it looks as if the 5 girls in Dotty's hut are creating a couple of extra nests, too:

And this is to show where I've put some of the ducky stickers my friend Sabine sent me recently: