October05 (my birthday month!)
Tuesday, 4th
Gerd and Maria came for their "annual visit" on Saturday, bringing
loads of goodies with them as usual, even early birthday presents for
me! It was so lovely to see them again, pity they only came for the day.
Gerd took quite a few pictures, and here are just six of them:
For a change I've included 3 non-ducky pictures, one of me opening
some of my early presents and one cutting up the Bienenstich. And don't
our pears look great this year against the garage? All we need now is
a partridge in it for Christmas!
The ducks have been brilliant going in at night. For 3 evenings running
there were already in the hut when we went to shut them in. They would
have been tonight, as well, if the doors hadn't been wide open - I'd left
the hut to air after refreshing the bedding. But, as soon as I had shut
the doors they were in! When I remember the trouble we had last year ................
can you recall how on 4th October 2004 I actually went into the duck pond
twice in the freezing cold to get them out?
Wednesday, 12th
Good grief, aren't I getting behind with this diary, more than a week since I last made an entry. I have been VERY busy, though, mainly in the garden, while John has been painting and decorating like mad in the house.
The ducks are getting better and better at finding their own food, roaming
around the garden especially after rain. I tend to get their food container
at lunchtime from near the hut and put it next to the frog pond where
they spend most of their days. Today I was rather late getting it and
they were stamping their feet, going this way and that, and venturing
uphill towards the hut where they were stopped in their tracks at the
garage by a bag full of stuff for composting. They hadn't seen that before,
oh dear, it might be dangerous ...... so they ran back to the frog pond.
Proper little scaredecats, they are. John took pity on them and fetched
their food container, and they dived in as if they'd never been fed before!
Here's a picture of them foraging in the orchard. You can just see their
food container under the bright red Rhus hirta - or is it typhina? - in
the background:
I spent a couple of days trying to tidy up in the totally overgrown pumpkin
patch. The duck pond is just behind it, and as the ducks kept coming over
to me I had hoped they might go in and get rid of the duck weed that's
almost covering it along with the two patches of waterlilies. But no,
they take fright at something and run back:
I managed to halt them and take a couple of snaps with some of our (9)
pumpkins behind them:
"Baby", seen in the middle of this picture, still worries me
now and again. Twice recently, after a long day's running, he collapsed
with outspread wings several times - just like GG did - in his effort
to catch up with the others. Maybe he just gets worn out after a long,
hard day???
Tuesday, 18th
Annie took some pictures on Sunday which I thought were rather lovely, these are three of them.
After the big party/family get-together at the weekend (another early birthday celebration) we've been trying to get back to something like normal with lots of tidying up in the garden while the weather holds.
I thought I'd do a little write-up of a "normal" ducky day.
After the hectic exit from their hut they always start their day in the
apple tree pond with an early bath and diving and 'fun and games' if the
mood grabs them. After a short time they get out and explore the perimeter
of the old chicken run on the greenhouse side, where I'm sure they find
lots of little slugs on the fallen apples. I had rather hoped they would
keep the big hosta I'd planted there to 'prettify' the area free of slugs.
They've done that alright, but they've freed all the stalks from their
leaves, too. 
This reminds me of an item I read on the countrysmallholding bulletin
board, where somebody asked what he could do about an overgrown pond.
He got the answer: "Get some ducks!
They'll soon rid you of everything in and around the pond, the little
buggers they are ......"
Next they concentrate on the area under the apple tree where I put down
the grass seed. A great number of mysterious bore holes have appeared
there .......
You can see just 6 on these two pictures, but I've counted at least a
dozen.
All down to their love of "puddling" in muddy holes, I bet.
Then comes the traverse from the chicken run, past the car and the garage, and helter skelter downhill to the bottom end of the frog pond. The time for this varies, sometimes as late as 10. This morning it was early, 08.25, I was still drinking my breakfast cup of tea. The Twin was leading on this occasion and led them the long way around the car across the stones, then the race developed with Olive overtaking the leaders and Lily bringing up the rear. There is always great fear and panic not to be left behind. Yesterday morning Splodge took a wrong turn and nearly collided with the two-stemmed birch. He then did quite a spectacular Harrier Jump Jet style vertical take-off to catch up and overtake by flying!
They do a lot of foraging these days in ever increasing circles, and always returning to the frog pond for a splash about and a preen. From early lunchtime onwards they have a siesta of about 2 hours, on or beside the water - well, they may be big, but they're still youngsters and need rest. After that it's fun and games again with lots of noise and splashing, and back to preening and foraging.
When the light starts to fail they head back to the apple tree pond, today it was before 6 pm, and just hang around in there until we come to shut them in for the night.
Quite exciting, wasn't it?
Thursday, 20th
Tried to take some photos of them puddling in front of the garage yesterday
- quite tricky as they scatter the moment they hear the noise of the window
opening. That's how I couldn't get the picture of them diving into the
food trough, either, when John brought it across. All ten of them had
their heads in there!
I did get these two, though: 
On this rectangular one our seven boys are almost in a line showing off
their silly off-white "underpants", and in this oval one it
is easy to see the ducks' markings from above:
While taking these snaps from the upstairs window I also spotted a chaffinch
(we've seen many more than usual this year)
pecking
among the phlomis seed heads.
Thursday, 28th
Just fancy, another whole week gone. I'm forever trying to catch up with myself.
Had a brilliant birthday on Tuesday, a great day out and lots of lovely
flowers, cards and presents, a considerable number of "ducky"
ones among them:
The ducks will all be 19 weeks old tomorrow; another 3 weeks and the girls might be laying. I've still not done anything about reducing the number of drakes. Ok, so they squabble now and again, girls too, but it's not serious fighting, and it seems such a shame to take some away when they've all grown up together and ALWAYS do everything together. I'll wait and see how it goes.
They've taken to wander up on the raised (where we piled up lots of the
spoil from digging it out) side of the frog pond a lot, sometimes coming
right across in front of the conservatory to see if we've put down food
for them. They looked so nice in the sunshine that I took a few snaps
- here are 3 of them:
Olive
is sitting just behind a tuft of my ornamental grasses as if on a nest,
and on this next one all 10 can be seen with the stumps of the fallen
ash at the back of the orchard.
This
third one gives you a view across the garden towards the field, and it
clearly shows how the little tykes have chomped away ALL the vegetation
around the frog pond - they've demolished nearly all the reeds and my
ornamental variegated grass which was in a pot just behind the 3 drakes
in front of this photo (the pot has since sunk), they've emptied the pot
with 9 candelabra primulas I'd put on the margin (pot also sunk), and
now they've even started to eat away at the Hebe behind Olive in the picture
above. As if they didn't get fed!
But you know I love them dearly.
Friday, 28th
Hurrah, Fanny's started laying again after all that time!