I’ve written several posts on the ducks here, one of the earliest commenting on the lack of males.
The Marina is now full of them!
There are drakes everywhere, and in their wake are a variety of females looking ‘doe eyed’, besotted and hopeful.
The latest to be named are Emergency Duck (his quack sounds like the two-tone of a siren, though to be honest, we don’t seem to have that many wild fowl casualties, so he’s not ee-aw-ing all the time) and Chuckles, who happily gives Laughing Duck a run for the money.
As well as the mallards, we have other varieties,
though the egyptian ducks seem to have vacated the area, so perhaps they migrate as do the geese.
Meanwhile, Rooster Duck is holding her own.
The nights are closing in now, though the clocks in the UK aren’t due to go back until the end of October. This means that it’s dark when we take Maggie out for her final wee, so we go armed with torches (Hubby looks like some kind of Cyclops with his on his head!) just in case she does something else and we have to find it to clear it up. These days due to a change of food, it’s neatly disguised as a brown or green leaf instead of the orangey/yellow one we’re used to. ‘Aromather-puppy’ is still alive and well though!
One thing about being a dog owner is that you become a connoisseur of dog poo and will always recognise your owns.
I am waiting for someone to accuse me of not clearing up so that I can tell them that if they prove the sh!t in question came out of my dog, I will gladly pay the fine.
But I digress, sort of………..
If we didn’t know what was going on, we could get really nervy at the loud splashes, flapping and gushes we hear quite frequently during the evenings at the moment.
The birds come in to land on the water like something out of an airshow but without brakes, and it is not at all uncommon to see a bachelor party eyeing up the gals from the pontoons before diving into the water to show off their ‘skills’.
They will start to pair off soon.
In the months to come, I just hope they aren’t as noisy in their nuptials as hedgehogs, because THEY kept us awake until the early hours!
pensitivity101 