Three days ago, a duck turned up with 7 new ducklings, incredibly 3 of them were beautiful yellow hybrids. Every few years we get one and they are usually taken by predators within a day or so. In my 16 years I have never seen 3 from one brood.
The Crows and Gulls spot them easily and they rarely last a few days. one got taken 2 days ago, and another yesterday. The Crows and Gulls have already taken about 40 this year so I was determined that they would not get the last Yellow one ! Tonight I got a chance when they turned up at feeding time, I saw a gull having a go and I waved my stick in the air to chase it off.
The mother duck approached with the ducklings and fed happily on the Dried mealworms. I made a move for the net and of course all the birds scattered about 100 or more ducks. Luck was on my side as the yellow one and a sibling split from the others on my side of the river. I had to move as fast as I could to head them off as they headed downstream. As I got slightly ahead they turned and made for the bank, I pounced and got the sibling but the yellow one kept ahead and nearly got away, out of breath, I just managed to catch up and caught it !
My long standing experience gave me the edge, but catching ducklings in a river is not easy !
It was imperative I got the yellow one and a sibling, to be reared together for the next 9 weeks.
Currently they are in the coop alone, but I will gradually introduce Disco as a foster Mum, which I'm sure she will be able to do.
Short video below of their first hour in captivity...having a good feed of Mealworm and lettuce !
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