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!

Hi OP,

          16! Egwina definitely outdid Eglantine then! We’ve lost 2 little ones since last night here but ‘Lucky’ is still doing well in with his/her aunt and monster cousins and Eglantine has 7 in with her. 

Keeping fingers crossed for all 16, they’re beautiful!

Now following you on Instagram. Loving the photos and videos. Also love the decorative boat with lights!

16! Holy moly she's got her work cut out with that many 😱

Well with a name like mine I am a bit biased about herons after the local one ate all my poor fish which used to keep the mozzies down nicely!

But my pond's the opposite of yours - tiny, a whole 4' long, with frogs and newts and mostly used by the songbirds and squirrels as a watering hole and bathroom. I dream of keeping ducks... but not allowed by the restrictive covenant :-(

Congrats on the brood. I shall have to live vicariously through this thread!

I've been staining fences today. Ducklings have now decided I am clearly trustworthy. I've been followed every step and at one point I had one sat on my boot. Not ideal when I'm working with chemicals.
I'd usher them back to the water, turn around and they'd all be behind me again.

We still have 16 happily. They are still extremely adorable.

@Heronatemygoldfish

Well with a name like mine I am a bit biased about herons after the local one ate all my poor fish which used to keep the mozzies down nicely!

But my pond's the opposite of yours - tiny, a whole 4' long, with frogs and newts and mostly used by the songbirds and squirrels as a watering hole and bathroom. I dream of keeping ducks... but not allowed by the restrictive covenant :-(

Congrats on the brood. I shall have to live vicariously through this thread!

Any size pond adds so much to the environment, your little 4' long one sounds like it supports a lot of life.

Herons are buggers this is true, I don't mind him at all as the fish population here can easily feed him, though I understand why they are hated when prized fish are taken as well.

As for your covenant, well, ducks turn up in all places. Put a duck decoy on your little pond and you might well get one nesting there. Cant really enforce a covenant on wild animals 😉

How are the babies doing?

@Soubriquet

How are the babies doing?

Great! Still 16. Not out in the garden today so wont have my little helpers, will try and get some pictures later though.

Fab

Any update OP?

@MinnieKat

Any update OP?

We’re struggling with Canada geese at the moment. They are attacking us and unfortunately the ducklings have come in for it as well and we’ve lost one.

I posted a blog earlier about it and at that point I was celebrating a bit as they left. Unfortunately they returned about half an hour ago. Hopefully it’s just an overnighter.

I’m having a nightmare trying to upload photos at the moment but I managed to post an Instagram pic of them all at the door earlier.

Fingers crossed this uploads

Awwwwwww thank you!!!

Poor Wina losing a baby

@Soubriquet

Poor Wina losing a baby

We were gutted. Nature I suppose.

Meanwhile we still have geese and I’ve now accepted my fate I think. They seem to have given up the idea of nesting so that’s one good thing. I can’t mow the banks as they love a freshly mown lawn and I’m itching to do some gardening. I put my new bed in, planted lots of seeds and little things I’d grown from seed in the kitchen window and they have either lay on them or nibbled at them. Could cry atm.

Oh dear. Gabby and Graham are certainly goosing around aren’t they

Gutted to say we’ve lost another. All very strange, got up this morning and there were only 14. Egwina hadn’t made a fuss etc which she would if it was taken by a predator so we have no idea what happened to it. Looked everywhere and it’s not around the pond. Hopefully that’s the last we lose though.

Geese still here. Seemed to have stopped trying to nest so that’s good news and also spend most of the time in the water so no poo everywhere.

I’ll leave you with a photo of two of them.

Aw they look so big already, do you think the geese have anything to do with the missing ducklings?

Im going to step away from this for a day or two.

Tonight as they waddled up to the door a cat dived and grabbed one. Egwina went mad, I ran as the cat went through the hedge. We could hear the duckling cheeping in the gardens behind. Between us and the neighbours we couldn’t find him and the cheeping stopped.

I know I’m being irrational. I’ve sobbed for most of the night. It was right there in front of me and I couldn’t save it.
I’ve told DH I can’t do this anymore. I’m drawn in to this pond and it’s wildlife and every time it crushes me. I need a normal home with a normal garden and none of this anymore. Nature is fucking cruel and horrible and we never had this in the old place. At the moment I absolutely want to put the house on the market and go. I’m sorry this is a horrible update but I feel deflated and all I can think of is that poor little duckling cheeping for his mum and I couldn’t find him. 🥲

@AlanThePig You presumably won’t see this fora couple of days but you’re not irrational you’re invested. Because you pour your heart and soul into caring for the pond and it’s inhabitants, and you care. Which is so much more than many people do.
Egwina won’t feel the hurt, as you’ve said before that’s nature, there are 16 ducklings for a reason, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be upset

@AlanThePig

I just want to say I totally understand. You remember I shared that my Eglantine had her babies and one I had to resuscitate and put in with a foster mum as Egg rejected him. I was absolutely thrilled that I’d given him another shot at life. He made it to 5 days old and passed in the night. Despite his foster mums efforts and my attempts to hand feed him, he just couldn’t come back. We lost 3 from our first litter and 3 from our second. We still have 4 and 7 thriving.

You are doing something wonderful and unique. You have this little pocket of wonderfulness and reading about the care you have taken has been lovely and inspiring. How many animals have survived where they might not have in a harsher or bigger pond? How many would Egwina have lost if she nested more publicly? Everything you’re doing is to help create a safe space for native wildlife, and heaven knows they need it with so much destruction of natural habitats.

I totally understand how frustrating it is to care and to have it happen right in front of you and feel so helpless would of course be devastating. It’s nature but we don’t have to like it. I hope when you read this you’re feeling a little more positive.

Unmumsnetty hugs and quacks to you!

I’m sorry

Nature sucks at time and it’s awful to see everytime especially when its something like a cat which gets fed anyway as opposed to an animal that needs to hunt to live

I have news, forgive SPAG as I was awake almost all night replaying why I didn't react quicker etc and up at half five putting wire mesh along the base of the hedge where the cat comes in.

Anyway, finished my fencing around 8am. Cat now absolutely cannot enter the garden from the side it did last night. Its a big hedge so cant come over it, from the holes along it, it looks like it's been using it as a cut for a while.
DH came out to me just as I was finishing. He'd not even heard me get up, sent me back to bed for an hour as I looked (and still do) knackered.

I was just nodding off when he flew back in the bedroom yelling "THERE ARE FOURTEEN!!!"

The layout of our garden is that we have a couple of neighbours to the side that back onto us. They are in the next street. As the cat shot through the hedge it was into their gardens. DH ran to the next street and between us all we searched both gardens. At some point, and I have no idea how, whilst we were all searching our little duckling made his own way back to the water.
The strange thing was I even took a photo last night to double check the numbers and he wasn't there at that point so I have no idea at all how he did it. It meant though I saved it. I didn't watch it die and the relief of that when he told me had me bursting into tears all over again.

I'm heading to B&Q in a moment to get some wire mesh for the open fence on the other side of the garden, this should mean the cat will find it extremely difficult to get into the garden. I also messaged its owner and asked if she could put a bell on it, she has agreed.

I still feel deflated a bit, I'm tired mostly so a bath and an early night should sort that. The irony that I was scrabbling around the gardens on my knees to find a duckling that was swimming behind me isn't lost on me, transpires there are lots of nettles and thistles in those borders too....

@MinnieKat I'm so sorry the baby didn't make it, funny isn't it how attached you get. I think if the cat had taken it without me seeing it then it's something I could accept, it was the fact I was inches away and couldn't stop it that played on my mind so much.

Anyway, here's to all 14 ducklings and some beautiful little ferrets. Tomorrow is another day.

Fantastic!

I’m So glad OP

I'm so glad he made it home, I've been following since the first thread and am also pretty invested in these ducks! It must be such an emotional rollercoaster but you really are making a difference, I'm sure most of the winter brood wouldn't have made it without you looking out for them.