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Post by Lancashire Lass on Apr 20, 2017 22:31:43 GMT
A common duck has made a nest very close to the door of our house. It appears to be made of her feathers and contains eggs although I am not sure how many. She leaves her nest around 6pm everyday flying off for some food and water for about half an hour. Sadly we know that foxes pass through our garden as there is a very distinct path where they walk so our little ducklings will be in danger as soon as they hatch.
I have put out a big dish of water for the mother duck to drink from and we are trying not to disturb her as we walk by.
I hope we get to see the ducklings!
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Post by vwcamperfan on Apr 21, 2017 7:32:27 GMT
Aw how lovely - lets hope they all stay safe when they hatch!
We have ducks in the stream at the bottom of the garden but haven't seen evidence of a nest nearby. They are usually found on the neighbour's house roof in the morning!
We have a nest of bluetits in next doors eaves as can hear them, and see mum and dad squeezing in through a tiny hole with food. Also saw a fab tug-of-war yesterday between a sparrow and a female blackbird - over a long length of fine twine - obviously the nesting material of choice this year!
Isn't nature fab!!
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Post by Lancashire Lass on Apr 21, 2017 7:38:05 GMT
It certainly is fab VW! I also saw 2 birds fighting over something yesterday but at a distance so could not work out was going on. Maybe it was about twine too! I noticed quite a few goldfinches too, so cute!
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Post by trisha on Apr 21, 2017 8:01:05 GMT
I love to see the baby birds, we have marshes close to where we are and last year we could see swans with babies riding on their backs. I chop wool and leave it on the garden, its the muted colours are always the favourite.
LL ducks can be very destructive in your garden, a bit messy as well. I hope the foxes don't get them.
Trisha
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Post by 6herry on Apr 22, 2017 6:21:55 GMT
We have those tiniest of birds nesting in our car port, wrens. I have always loved them, the way the flit and skip around is fascinating. We have a coveed area outside our house with a deep pile rug in it, we often see little birds heaving at it and pulling the wool out, for nests.  Ducks can be messy in the garden, but slugs and snails will vanish. |
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Post by Lancashire Lass on May 1, 2017 18:19:59 GMT
Today is hatching day! I have been peeping down on mummy duck and watching her ducklings appear then disappear under her. Sad to think only one or two will survive!
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Post by Lancashire Lass on May 4, 2017 21:05:39 GMT
We had 14 ducklings and 4 unhitched eggs! We got up early, 6am, to check on the family and around 9am, mummy duck jumped off the nest and the little ones followed. They had a jump of about 3 feet off the stone trough and one little chap seemed to struggle to walk but they all made it to our garden pond where their mum encouraged them all day to jump in and out and to preen their feathers. Sadly at about 3pm a sparrowhawk was spotted by OH on the garden fence with a duckling! We spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden doing jobs to keep any more visitors away. As it went dark mummy duck sat at the side of the pond (tiny pond) with all the babies hidden underneath her. She was not hidden at all and so vulnerable. We know their are foxes around here! The following morning there was no sight of any of them but also no feathers so we hope very much mummy duck set off early to walk down to the river, takes me 15 minutes so how long for ducklings is anybodies guess. I took lots of short videos and photos and will try to post one.
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Post by Lancashire Lass on May 4, 2017 21:09:48 GMT
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