Re: OT - BH

Linda Fox <linda.ff@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:13:45 +0100, Penny <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I do love to see recently hatched ducklings on the water. They skitter
about at such speed and are so fluffy they look out-of-focus :)

When I was living in Taunton I watched a family of ducks on the river.
I in turn was apparently being watched by a group of people on the
opposite bank because of my rapt attention to what was going on there.
[linda's story omitted]

my work is a sort of figure-of-8 building, and has two enclosed
courtyards. my office window looks out on one.

for the last two years, a duck has laid eggs in amongst the plants in
the middle of the courtyard. she was highly amusing: she would fly
in, look most carefully around her, and then furtively duck under the
plants to go and sit on the eggs.

of course, the eggs hatched last year on the spring bank holiday w/e,
and we(!) got messages to the systems support address suggesting we
should do something about it[*]. on the monday, my boss happened to
be there, and collected a bunch of research students to do some
herding. they unlocked the courtyard where the duck was waddling
round and round with her ducklings, but as they did so, a magpie
swooped down and helped himself to one.

on neither year has the event been caught on camera. this year,
the university gardening service have replanted the shambolic garden
the builders put there. it looks a lot better, but afaict the duck
hasn't returned this year...

[*] there _is_ a building services address, but either no-one knows
about it, or they reckoned systems were a better bet. (they were
treated to a particularly silly response from one sys-admin, saying
"if they flew in they can fly out again".)
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge
.

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