The Great Eggscape

Since the clocks went forward the daily duck routine has changed slightly; they're used to watching me change their water and fill up their food, followed by me herding them back into their enclosure before it gets dark. However, now the daylight has increased I've found myself letting them stay up a bit later despite feeding them at roughly the same time. This has thrown them completely, and Dolly in particular has developed a stubborn streak now she's realised that she doesn't have to go in at feeding time. Dolly is a German streicher, mainly white with a grey/black beak and black markings on her wings, she's Dora's partner in crime and tends to let Dora take the lead before following close behind. That was until lately...

Dolly has decided that if I'm heading for the duck house and looking as if I might be about to herd them in, she heads in the opposite direction which could be towards the compost heap at the other end of the garden or, more usually, she gets into the pond and resolutely refuses to get out. Anyway, after another evening of cajoling Dolly back into the enclosure where her obedient friends were waiting, the gate was closed. Or so we thought. Nearly 2 hours later when Mr 10-toer was partaking of an afterdinner smoke (ok,ok, 'aving a fag') and wandering outside in the garden he discovered the ducks swimming nonchalantly on the pond in the pitch black. Now, I had two immediate theories about how this happened:

a) Mr 10-t hadn't shut the gate at all.

b) Somebody had come into our garden and let our ducks out.

I favoured a) - hard day at work, tired, got distracted - this seemed the most plausible. Mr 10-t, however, was absolutely adamant that he had shut the gate. So we agreed to disagree.

It seems though that neither theories were right. A couple of days later, Mr 10-t went to let the ducks out in the morning and found Dolly ramming the gate with her head. Obviously, the sight of the pond and garden beyond had forced a disgruntled Dolly to take action the other night. No mean feat when you consider the door is 6ft high with a steel frame and wire across it. We're thinking of entering Dolly into a World's Strongest Duck competition.... (oh, and added a padlock onto the gate too, in case you're wondering).

Spring has sprung!

Spring has definitely arrived - the trees are in blossom, the tadpoles are swimming and Dave is feeling amorous. Dave is our Pekin duck who has lived with us since last September along with his girls: Dora, Dolly and Daphne. Dave is unusual in the duck world as he's not keen on water and only reluctantly steps into the pond for a preen occasionally [This leaves me with no choice but to draw comparison with my two teenagers of the male variety :)]. Dave rarely swims in the pond, spending a lot of time just watching the other 3 swimming about, but when he does he has a very unusual technique, looking as if he might capsize at any time. At the moment Dave's focus takes the form of Daphne, a very beautiful crested Appleyard. Daphne is good looking and she knows it. A much less upright shaped duck than the other two girls, she has gorgeous patterned plumage and accessorises this with a matching crest on the top of her head. If she could wear lipstick and carry a handbag she probably would. However, its a case of you can look but don't touch as Daphne does her best to shun Dave's advances at all times. This is extremely comical as Dave and Daphne are the least agile of all the ducks. Dave's centre of gravity is so low that in his quest for love (when he's trying to run after Daphne) he has been known to fall over. This requires one of us 10-toers to roll him back onto his side so that he can get himself up as, if you've ever seen a duck on his back, there's no way he would ever be able to do this himself. Daphne, on the other hand, can't really run at all. She has very short legs and an extremely rotund body which makes her look as if she is never hassled and always does everything very slowly, serenely and in her own time. It's a good job Dave's not so agile otherwise poor Daphne would have no chance!