Duck Tales! (Still not what I expected to wake up to this morning)

[AlanThePig]

With the last thread almost full and a new clutch of ducklings I thought it might be time for another thread.

So this morning I was happily working away in the front garden when I happened to glance at the duck house, and saw two faces staring back....
Now I know our resident duck Egwina was on eggs, but I was convinced they were due to hatch somewhere around the end of the month. Quite surprised to spot ducklings.

As the day has worn on 14 little fluffy yellow ducklings have slowly emerged into the sunlight and launched themselves (not very gracefully) into the water. I say 14, I'm not 100% certain yet as they aren't keeping still enough to count and there might be more inside.

Difficult to photograph all together at present as some are in and some are out and they haven't yet come close enough to see. There was 12 (I think!) in this photo and 2 on the deck.
Congratulations Egwina!

Sadly little Teasel the Hedgehog didn’t make it, but was at least warm, safe and pain free when he did pass. Bit gutted but it’s spurred me on to make a proper hedgehog feeding station.

we’ve had a breeding pair here for a few days and she seems to be taking an interest in duckingham palace. It’s definitely not Egwina and Duncan as they aren’t especially tame but they do seem to know where the food is so maybe a previous clutch?

I think we still have three moorhen babies. Hard to spot. I noticed yesterday we have lots of beautiful blue damselflies appearing. Also noticed the pond weed is going a bit nuts so this weeks plan is to rake it. Always something to be doing.

RIP little Teasel.

I wonder where Egwina and Duncan have gone. Surely your pond is the most aspirational of duck neighbourhoods, why would they move elsewhere?

Ah poor Teasel

Any duck news @AlanThePig ?

It’s been, dare I say it…. A very quiet summer. We had two clutches of moorhen chicks and the moorhen parents were so territorial they seemed to actively discourage our ducks from any of the nest houses. We’ve had the usual comings and goings of ducks but not a single duckling. On one hand I’ve really missed them, on the other we’ve saved a fortune in food 😳

The last remaining teenage moorhen has now gone, along with its parents so we’re kind of hoping they don’t return really.

Water levels here are lower than we have ever seen them, worryingly low in fact. It will be interesting to see how this affects things into winter. Despite being so low the water quality remains great though and we’ve currently got lots of enormous dragonflies flitting about too.

Added a pic from the other day,. It seems there used to be a huge tree on this side of the pond and when cut down they threw the biggest piece of trunk in the water. The level is now so low it’s completely exposed, but last week was just under the water enough to look like they were levitating 😂

Brilliant photo; they’ve cracked the walking on water, then!

Thank you for the fab photo and update.

So glad this thread is back 😍

Also, another small purchase I made over the summer 😂

Love that Alan! 🦆 🐥

I do hope Egwina returns. Moorhens are lovely but can also be nasty bastards when they have chicks. Coots are worse!

Ah, so glad you are back! We've had a quiet summer ducks-wise on the canal here too, only two clutches, only 2 lots of sygnets (sadly a third died and dad from th 4th pair died before the eggs hatched) but We've had more moorhen babies than usual too.

I'm so happy to see this thread revived 🥰

Yay your back! and I still get the duck tales theme tune stuck in my head every time

Thanks for all the up-dates, this has to be one of the BEST threads ever 🦆🪱🦔

Egwina came back, presumably after her spring clutch and stayed for the moult along with Duncan (if you’re reading and not familiar with the yearly moult it’s when all the ducks lose feathers, all the males look ill and then resemble females and finally emerging looking glorious in early September. It’s a tricky time as the loss of their feathers means they really can’t fly well at all so they tend to return to a safe place for the moult)

Some of you might remember Flo, one of two ducklings we took on last year (the other being Mac). Flo was quite unique in having a VERY loud quack that’s a bit different to other ducks. Never heard another duck like her. She’s also a bit darker than Egwina and quite tame so easy to spot. Anyway Flo also returned for the moult as we discovered around half five one morning…. She’s still extremely loud but also very friendly and happy to hand feed a bit of bread as a treat.

That seems to be the current family. Had a walk around earlier to fish out any other detritus the lower water levels have exposed and pulled out two huge rusting iron rods. No idea what they were, maybe remains of an old fence perhaps, though did joke it was a Roman sword as I pulled it up 😂. Now need to look for the scrap man to get rid of them.

@ChimChimeny ive noticed a lower number on local ponds too. I have wondered if numbers are down in general this year, maybe with the weather? It’s very odd.

It's so nice to get an update on the pond!

Lovely to hear your updates, Alan, thank you for coming back and telling us what's been happening. This is one of my all time favourite Munsnet threads btw, so cosy

Aww another one loving the update 🥰 I'm very jealous of your little wildlife haven!

Not much to update this week really. Still have the three, Flo, Egwina and Duncan. No sign of the moorhens at all now so I think they have probably flown to pastures new. I’m half hoping they don’t return. They were great to watch but they absolutely monopolised the pond and were completely responsible for our lack of ducklings this year.

now the nights are drawing in the bats are venturing over at dusk. I counted about six the other night when I came home divebombing the water for insects. I then literally ran from car to front porch because I’m still terrified of them 😂

I used to love reading your updates @AlanThePig and I've just stumbled upon you again! Excellent!

@AlanThePig - I read this in the RSPB notes on nature and thought of you. They are running a photo competition for their next calendar RSPB notes on nature

Oh thank you! I'll take a look x

Erm. We have ducklings.

I don’t know how many as they’ve only just marched out of the house and I can’t get close enough to see yet but we have at least six.

I can’t see them surviving. It’s the wrong time of year yet again and I’m away for half of next month Bugger.

You need a duck sitter op!