Sam & I went to try to count ducks – not easy because they all run (waddle) away from you quacking loudly and join up with the others – and most of them look the same so its very hard to tell which ones you have counted and which you haven’t. Well, the fence is doing a good job – lots of ducklings.
So we think we have:
1 Jeremy*
2 white muddle ducks **
2 mallards
Approx 6 black ducks with about 12 very small new ducklings
Approx 6 muscovys with about 16 ducklings ranging from teenage to toddler
About 5 multicoloured muddle ducks
So, all in all about 53 – not including what Johan calls the 4 “Delinquent Ducks” who have made a break for freedom and are still free range rather than live in the duck area – they sneak along and swim in the swimming pool at 1 in the morning so their days are numbered if they keep that up. Plus there is one Muscovy sitting on eggs behind the stables = about 58. However, Biggles has become a rampant duck chaser so we have to make sure the gate is firmly closed otherwise he wiggles though and leaps into the pond, motoring furiously around with just his moustache floating on the surface! However, although not desirable in the duck pond - he is very useful when trying to evict the delinquent ducks from the swimming pool.
* Jeremy – When plot one sold up and went to live in a townhouse we inherited Jeremy and Henry. They were already quite old and had lived together all their lives. Henry was a rooster and Jeremy a Peking duck. At first Jeremy insisted on staying close to Henry so went to live in the chicken run – with his own little swimming pool. But then as time went on and he saw the other ducks, it gradually dawned on him that he is a duck! So now he is completely integrated and some of the muddle ducks have splashes of white – so there is life in the old duck still!
* Muddle ducks – our name for ducks of mixed parentage, no longer a pure black duck, Muscovy or mallard – they are now muddle ducks.
So we think we have:
1 Jeremy*
2 white muddle ducks **
2 mallards
Approx 6 black ducks with about 12 very small new ducklings
Approx 6 muscovys with about 16 ducklings ranging from teenage to toddler
About 5 multicoloured muddle ducks
So, all in all about 53 – not including what Johan calls the 4 “Delinquent Ducks” who have made a break for freedom and are still free range rather than live in the duck area – they sneak along and swim in the swimming pool at 1 in the morning so their days are numbered if they keep that up. Plus there is one Muscovy sitting on eggs behind the stables = about 58. However, Biggles has become a rampant duck chaser so we have to make sure the gate is firmly closed otherwise he wiggles though and leaps into the pond, motoring furiously around with just his moustache floating on the surface! However, although not desirable in the duck pond - he is very useful when trying to evict the delinquent ducks from the swimming pool.
* Jeremy – When plot one sold up and went to live in a townhouse we inherited Jeremy and Henry. They were already quite old and had lived together all their lives. Henry was a rooster and Jeremy a Peking duck. At first Jeremy insisted on staying close to Henry so went to live in the chicken run – with his own little swimming pool. But then as time went on and he saw the other ducks, it gradually dawned on him that he is a duck! So now he is completely integrated and some of the muddle ducks have splashes of white – so there is life in the old duck still!
* Muddle ducks – our name for ducks of mixed parentage, no longer a pure black duck, Muscovy or mallard – they are now muddle ducks.
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