Dead and Alive

The 10 beautiful little ducklings I warned to be careful about a few days ago are all dead. The hoodie crows and maybe people tossing bread on top of them have seen them all wiped out. The mother duck lost at least 2 every day since hatching on the 8th, on one occasion she lost 2 within 3 hours. I saw her at mid day then by 3pm she had lost two. I fear the seagulls on that occasion for she was near the grass and wall, in full view of all the passing tourists etc. It is really sad because the ducklings were gorgeous with 3 of them really light coloured. The caravanners are still not getting the message and continuing to walk round the river with a white bag of white bread and feeding the seagulls - One chap tonight with his child I had told last year not to feed the gulls, there he was again doing the same damn thing !! As for doing the same thing, I picked up two pieces of fishing line from the smoke shed pier yesterday !!

Meanwhile the cygnets are thankfully very much alive, they are now two months old and growing by the day. I am giving them a 20kg sack of grain a week at the moment, this will steadily increase as they progress towards the autumn. The pen has lost virtually all her wing feathers and will be another month before she can fly again. (Short video clip below - apologies for the sound, digital camera mics are awful for catching the wind blowing across the front of the camera ! )