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Sunday 8 April 2012

Duck and moorhen update

Touch wood, the new ducks seem to be settling into a proper routine remarkably well! After about 10 days of a worrying pattern of 'in for two nights, out for two' they have now figured out that home is the shed where food is given to them when they go to bed, out of the red bowl which rattles, full of yummy duckie nutrition. The two girls are laying every day so we are not exactly short of eggs, given that the hens are generally laying 3-4 every day.

We have had to move some of the firewood in the shed though, as the log piles were low and they just wouldn't stop jumping up and walking around on top, which isn't ideal for wobbly web footed creatures. They even pulled some straw from a bale and made a nest on top of the logs! Now they have a new nest on the ground in a corner, not the original nest behind the food bin where the previous ducks laid, not that this matters really. I suppose this means they have settled in, which is a good sign. Freckles still lays the occasional egg, but mostly for the last 6 months or so when she does lay, her eggs are rubbery, or completely shell-less. It's a bit mucky to clean up but no worse than their poop!

Egg on log pile nest, and my wellie

I hardly even spend much time with them, as they are so independant compared to the first lot of ducks. It's just lovely having them wandering around chuntering happily away and swimming on the lake though - my OH admits he is glad that I persuaded him to get some more. I agree!

They just happen to get into most of my lake photos
(this ornamental cherry is just opening up into bloom now, it's going to be a real picture soon)

In other water bird news (now these ones are more suited to climbing log piles, having unwebbed feet with toes), the moorhens have been busy building nests. Yes, plural. They do that sometimes, some years they will sit on a nest for a while then decide to go and build another one somewhere else. Other times they'll just hedge their bets and build several then go eeny-meeny-miney-moe. I really don't know what goes on in the minds of moorhens. 

By the way, I read somewhere that they are no longer to be known as Moorhens, but Common Gallinules. Well I knew they were of the Gallinule family, related to the absolutely spectacular Purple Gallinule that we had the pleasure of seeing once in Spain, but I'm buggered if I am renaming this blog Chateau Common Gallinule. No way!

Common Gallinule nest in the Common Gallinule tree.
It doesn't really work, does it?

Edit: Phew, needn't have worried! It was the North American Moorhen which has now changed its name, even though I can barely see a difference between the two. So Moorhen we can continue to be, although I will dispense with the words 'Eurasian Common' which is the first part of its correct name. Chateau Eurasian Common Moorhen is even more silly than Chateau Common Gallinule!

7 comments:

  1. Gallinule is just "little hen" anyway, isn't it? I am SO jealous of your ducks. It's a bit on the arid side here: I think people would look askance if we chose this season to start a duckpond.

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    1. Is it? I didn't learn Latin at school! Getting really dry here too and if you are anywhere near a likely hosepipe ban then no, not the ideal time to start a pond of any sort which may need topping up during the summer. :-(

      The ducks are fun though although the downside is too many eggs!

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  2. Serious. Pond. Envy. Ours gets more like a swamp every day. Well, actually, it doesn't, it just remains like one. We released some tadpoles into it the other day. They have all ominously disappeared - probably flung themselves out in disgust. Nice to hear your ducky news - ours are MUCH happier now, even they will not abide my presence for a second. One egg a day... so by my calculations (!) we definitely have one girl at least. And the brown one does have curly tail feathers so he is a boy, n'est-pas?

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    1. I think ducks might eat the tadpoles - I haven't seen any this year, but we don't have them every year anyway. Not a lot of cover or vegetation with our pond but the ducks like to snuffle in the water all around the edges where the spawn and tadpoles are. I'm glad you are getting an egg and your ducks are settling in (sort of!)and yes, I think it's a boy, cos my boy definitely has unmistakeable curly tail feathers. He's also the shyest and makes silly noises (bit like a frog croaking). He can't quack like the girls, but I don't know if it is just him, or all drakes are like that!

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  3. I just found out what your blog name means. I had assumed it was something in French... lol
    I never knew that ducks can lay eggs regularly. There is so much I don't know!

    Albert Einstein Quote

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    1. Ahhh Jenson you make me smile! I'll teach you about the birds and the bees (no, not in that way!) and you can teach me about geeky things!:-)

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  4. Looks like fun, I can go to a lake nearby to see ducks but it's a whole different thing to be able to have them in your backyard =)

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