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Our new generation Slim and Sue, have settled into the river and appear to be enjoying their new domain.
I was privileged to witness a very lovely bonding session today, a regular occurrence of young love.
While we humans are blighted by a deadly virus, the wildlife world continues with the business of creating new life.
How lucky we are to have such distractions at this time.
Slim and Sue are like the Penny and Popeye of 2005, I hope they give us the same joy for the next decade.
Just spotted the first Duckling brood of the year....if you see them - Please don't throw bread to them, as this will attract Gulls and Crows that will kill them !!
Good Friday and Easter traditionally a time for new life. This indeed is a Good Friday, being the warmest day of the year so far in this part of the world. Coincidentally we also have the appearance of the first duckling brood of the year ! No sign of the Mother duck which is a bit worrying, but hopefully she will turn up soon.
Often new mothers get pounced on by single drakes and briefly have to make a quick exit from the river. The hatch timing is critical, and their survival depends very much on the mothers care and the weather. The warmth today should ensure a hatch of insect life too.
With very cold temperatures and snow forecast for the weekend, there is one very lucky duck and 11 ducklings safely in my care.
This morning I woke up to check the incubator and was delighted to see one of the ducklings hatched, and another 5 eggs already pipped. Later when doing my usual riverside round I was informed that there was a duck with a large brood at Merryton bridge. Sure enough it was one of the sisters of the duck that had her nest swamped last week, and she had a brood of 11 ducklings.
The north easterly wind was blowing up the river, it was so cold, brass monkeys came to mind !
Weather conditions and Crows would spell certain death for this brood. With the large net I managed to catch the mother and then the 11 ducklings, I was elated!
This now gives me the intriguing possibility of having this mother as a proxy for the eggs now hatching in the incubator.
Ironically they are connected, since both mothers are sisters ! Pics show the rescued brood and also the newly hatched one in the incubator.
Today I saw my first brood of Ducklings on the river, the mother appeared from the Swans island with 6 tiny ducklings. As always, they are incredibly cute and endearing, after a brief swim she took them back onto the island for a warm up.
The weather could have been better with a chilly sea breeze blowing up the riverside.
Hoping this is the first brood of many, for we will no doubt lose the majority to predators - this is the saddest part of spring for me. I would ask people not to attempt throwing bread to these tiny ducklings , since they are too small to eat it and only attracts crows and gulls to their presence, please don't do it.
