Is the woman who has Duckingham Palace still around?

[Soubriquet]

I would love to read an update. Have you got new birds? Have the previous ones come back? What about the moor hens?

Bump up

I'd love an update on this too!

Best thread ever that one...

It was awesome....

I wish I could remember her user name

Alanthepig I think is her name.

Duck Tales! (Still not what I expected to wake up to this morning) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4221971-Duck-Tales-Still-not-what-I-expected-to-wake-up-to-this-morning?msgid=-4221971#-4221971

Its
AlanThePig

Aaahhhhh!!! Thank you

@AlanThePig Are you still around?

I was only thinking about that thread this morning - as I watched a duck lead her 8 ducklings across the road.

It was lovely to follow her tales but couldn't remember the poster to follow up. Hope she returns with an update.

She had a blog, but I can't remember what it was called. Was a lovely story but very identifying, so maybe @alanthepig took it down

I guess she’s not about anymore

Was it the poster who gad an instagram account called ayearonthepond? She hasn’t updated that in about two years

Possibly yeah. It’s such a shame cos I loved reading it on here.

So did I.

If @AlanThePig is still on Mumsnet we'd love to hear how the pond is going.

Oh yes! I would love to know

I am here! I just don’t pop on as much as I used to and have only just seen this, I’m so touched you remembered my chaotic little patch of water ❤️

happy to update you all!
The arrival of the moorhens to Duckingham Palace put the beaks of Duncan and Egwina out a bit, and despite having 5 free nest boxes here they didn’t lay last year and it’s not looking good for this year either. I don’t know why they don’t gel but it’s a bit disappointing. They do still visit though and come straight to the door for breakfast.
Marv and Marvina the moorhens do look like they are nesting though, so we may have the odd little fuzzy babies again this year.

We had some drama last summer after a well meaning neighbour from another street ushered an entire family of geese to the pond one Saturday morning. We had spent most of the spring discouraging them from laying here so they left for ponds anew. There is another pond about half a mile up the road and a lady saw them in the area, didn’t realise there was a pond and assumed they’d come from us. She then rounded them up and walked two Canada geese and three goslings all the way here……

They caused chaos.

The mess they made was phenomenal. Once they had exhausted our grasses they began to walk the street and ate all the neighbours lawns. There was poo everywhere, the kids couldn’t play out the front and I had to go and apologise and explain this wasn’t our doing. Eventually after a month they walked back to where they had come from we think as they walked off one morning and never returned.
unfortunately we have a breeding pair at the moment that turned up on Friday so todays plan is to temporarily fence the edge of the water to discourage them from beat building.

the frogs and newts are doing their spring thing so hopefully the balance is all good again this year, and we have been visited a lot by this gorgeous boy. Water levels are incredibly high too, probably higher than I’ve seen them in six years which is a little concerning really, we need a dry week or so to restore the balance I think.

Alan please say you have plans for a new thread....

Oh I’m so glad you’re here!! Poor Duncan and Egwina though…looks like the moorhens have really taken over.

Oh, I'm very envious that you have a visiting kingfisher! In Welsh they are called glas y dorlan which translates, rather poetically, as 'blue of the riverbank'.

Oh ! @AlanThePig
Welcome back 💐
Thank you so much for the update.

🦆🦆🦆🪿🪿🪿🦢🦢🦢🥰

@LadyMonicaBaddingham I remember being thrilled when I read the Welsh name too! So romantic.

@Soubriquet it was a bit sad, but from a selfish point of view it was nice to not have ducklings to worry over. Moorhens are feisty buggers and do quite well at protecting their offspring, but the ducklings were always that bit more vulnerable and I could rarely go a summer without shedding tears over one. I knew I needed to step back a bit from it all, but it's easier said than done sometimes.

@LadyMonicaBaddingham now thats beautiful! I always feel honoured when he's here. I have a video of him somewhere of him catching a fish earlier this year that was way too big for him. He sat on top of the duck house and bashed the life out of it for 20 minutes, pummelling it until it was small enough to eat. I didn't know they did that and I was both fascinated and horrified.

We've put the goose fencing up, and not a moment too soon either as they were starting to forage nest material. They're currently on the water inspecting the perimeter to see if there is any other potential there. Hopefully they will decide to bugger off later. Fingers crossed because I dont have a plan B 😂

Alan as a connoisseur of duck nesting boxes, could recommend a brand or type or webpage to get one from?