Re: The 'ah' factor

On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:05:26 GMT, Steve Brooks a gribouillé dans la
poussière...

Penny wrote:
Steve Brooks a gribouillé dans la poussière...

We have ducks breeding every year in the courtyards at work. It's an
ex-secondary school and the courtyards have been planted with a pond
in one. Depressingly few survive. Since the courtyards are entirely
enclosed and no one has ever seen a cat in the area we put the
attrition down to the local magpies.

I have seen no ducklings in the village this year - I am assured by
others who get out more that there were some but whether they got
eaten, squashed or washed away in one of several flash-floods I
couldn't say.

Ducks are not great mothers, they wander off with the ducklings in
line behind them and never look back. I have watched them hop up a
kerb and continue walking while the ducklings try desperately to get
up the huge cliff they are faced with; waddle across a drain grid and
lose a child or two down the holes and watched strong men gathering
ducklings into a box before their mother lead them across a level
crossing with similar narrow gaps too deep for the fluff-balls to
scale.

I'd like to add to that - I find the sight of an enraged mother duck
charging a rival/threat irresistably funny. Beak an inch from the ground,
spread wings as wide as possible and charge at full pelt, quacking loudly.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten their behaviour on the water - there they do keep an
eye on the youngsters and will see off any perceived threat, like someone
chucking bread at them or a drake looking too interested.
--
Penny
If all is not lost, where is it?
umra Nicknames & Abbreviations http://www.umra.freeuk.com/nicks.html
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