Week beginning 15 September 2001
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This wee girl is so cute I simply have to keep taking
photographs of her.
Isla and her calf again.
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Sunday
We think perhaps we'll stay home. I guess the swallows aren't anymore.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT... from the extreme to the absurd...
This could be the new 'Ugly Duckling' except it's the 'Ugly Lamb'...
At last, a family of my own, one that will accept my differences!
However, it was our view that a small
two legged not-lamb probably wouldn't do awfully well in such a family, not
being able to reach the teats of its new mother and at night, snuggling into
the side of a sheep, who just might roll over and inadvertently squash her
strange new child, would make survival rather doubtful. Then, having picked this one up,
we heard another very distinctive cheeping from the river (which was still quite high
from the morning's flood) and there discovered another lone duckling, who
swam readily in our direction, having heard its sibling. Both were a bit cold and we
couldn't see any others anywhere,
although I suspected they were the offspring of the ducks we've been watching
out on the flats recently.
| We brought them home and while
thinking of what to do next, popped them into the most secure baby pen
available for a few minutes; the bath (the outside one that is; you think
if we had an inside bath it would look like this?). | |
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| Then, bearing in mind the hassles of raising orphaned ducks,
I decided to try
to return them to the vicinity of their parents. So I took them out across the
paddock to the tree I'd seen
the hen-duck fly into and popped them under the fence. Then as I walked
away... |
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... they followed me... |
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... through the gateway... |
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... along the muddy track... |
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...along in front of the house and in through the back
door! |
Having been struck down with the dreadful lurgi for
several days, there've not been many photo calls. My constant companions have been the
new babies, cruising
around cleaning up whatever bugs they can find on the floor of the house and
dicing with death, in the form of huge feet.
Oh, and presumably, under normal circumstances, this might be rather risky!
While out taking a gentle 'constitutional', we discovered
the rest of the family, who are regularly ranging across the flats. Surprisingly,
there are still as many as on the first day we saw them. It
seems they retreat to a pond or large puddle whenever they see us coming and
sit in the middle, quite quietly. Their
mother flew in on a couple of occasions and they all dived under the water
and didn't reappear for several seconds. Presumably that's how they avoid hawk
attacks. When they're out feeding on the grass,
both parents are with them, the ducklings seeming to lead the way with the
parents following, maintaining constant guard.
