A Year On The Pond

  Woke up this morning to find we only have 2 ducks today.  In fairness it did seem rather quiet... Pease is restored for now, scraps are paused for the day and Duncan and Egwina have chosen their spot.... Duck Island, or, as my son has taken to calling it "Desert Island Ducks" appears to have been accepted along with it's new hut.   Which house they nest in, and how many nests we end up with, remains to be seen!

  Firstly, lets take a moment to appreciate the hastily constructed duck island.  A cheap, Amazon house on top of the floating platform I constructed last October, with a couple of plants to make it look a bit less pallet like and more thought out (yes, I fully expect duck to use planter rather than house to nest...)  I have grand plans for a couple of Busy Lizzies in those pots come summer. Duck Island is now in position properly, having been stuck here for a week until the ice melted enough to move it. The finished abode seems to have coincided with the return of both Dunc and Egwina and Dot with her fella.  I was rudely awakened at 9am by the unmistakeable sound of ducks, scrapping.  They have spent the day arguing, shouting, chasing, biting, flying off in a huff and returning to repeat all of the above.  At one point Steve went to fetch something from the car and was splashed by a pair of angry males arguing over the s...

It's safe to say life hasn't been exactly on the level over at Chez Duck.  The construction of a duck house is reasonably simple, it has a cavity which is generally stuffed with floating materials such as polystyrene.  Unfortunately over time this polystyrene begins to degrade and well, the ducks start to feel a bit off kilter. When I brought the house in at the end of the summer for a paint and general clean I replaced the polystyrene with some I'd got at the back of the shed from a delivery.  This was probably a mistake - it was ill fitting and poor quality and ultimately led to it degrading a lot quicker than I'd expected and the house starting to sink. With the realisation that 'shit, it's february and the ducks will be needed it to nest!' Kicking in the other night I knew I needed to get it in and fix it whilst the pond was defrosted and the weather not too bad.  I went to B&Q last night and picked up a pack of loft insulation, some heavy duty...

  If you are struggling to load the video, the direct link is here: A month on the pond A month of snow, ducks coming and going and water levels rising and falling.  If you watch the gap at the end of the pier you can see the levels drop and then rise again. The images are taken from a CCTV camera overlooking the pond, it was the easiest way to ensure I'm getting the same angle daily. Some of the more observant of you will notice I've had to use one day twice, this is because of endless problems we had with BT and we had to disconnect everything from the internet for 24 hours whilst they run tests.  It meant I couldn't get my daily photo.

  Finally the 1398 days of January are over and I can start looking forward to spring again.  The pond is starting to defrost and happily the heavy snow forecast for today didn't hit us.  This means we have  four ducks happy to be home.  Weirdly we also have a seagull who is identifying as a duck.  I have no idea why but he's spent all day like this, he's even come over with the others for food...  Who am I to judge? Meanwhile on the duck front, courtship rituals are in place.  The 2 males are getting antsy and scrapping a bit whilst the females look on with a kind of 'here we go again' expression.  Hopefully they will tolerate each other and there wont be feathers flying. What this has made me realise is I need to get my arse in gear and sort the existing duck house before they start to nest.  It needs to be hauled out and have new polystyrene under it to help it float.  It's a quick job, but with the pond being froz...