My reasoning for keeping it was simple, it was a perfectly healthy duck but unable to fly. I reasoned that ducks don't fly all that often, maybe less than 1 per cent of the time so why have it put to sleep ? It was capable of doing everything else including procreating, as it has shown by mating and now sitting on a clutch of eggs.
Yesterday one of them hatched and today fate intervened once again, by way of a duckling rescued from the riverside. At my normal riverside feeding I saw a new mother duck arrive with 4 ducklings in tow. The river at Merryton has changed considerably after last weeks flood with a stronger current and trees stuck around the bridge supports. The mother crossed the current but 2 of her newly hatched ducklings were unable to fight the current and were washed to the opposite side.One of the stranded ones made it over but the other was too weak and reluctant to enter the water again. The mother headed up stream with the 3 ducklings and I had no choice but to retrieve the weak one.
As fate would have it I again reasoned that maybe the dislocated mother duck still hatching her eggs and already having one, might just accept this new rescued duckling ? Taking it home I carefully lifted the nest box lid and the mother duck moved off the nest, revealing her baby and eggs - placing the rescued duckling in the nest the surrogate duck immediately moved straight back onto the nest !
Fate once again coupled with natural instinct came to the rescue, I am well pleased !
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