Saturday 5 June 2010

Cottage Life : The First Ducklings

Welcome to my cottage blog which I have opened purely to share my joy at living in such peaceful surroundings. I adore wildlife, gardening and painting in watercolour. Living here I have subjects galore to  capture with my brush but I  never once imagined how blissful life could be. It is far too gorgeous not to share so wherever you are in the world please feel free to take time out to relax here whenever you wish.

Mother and Young, Our first duckling family.

 When we first moved in  we heard six ducklings had been taken by a magpie and only one survived.  This duckling has grown and now become a family favourite.  I have been feeding  all of the ducks daily. They now come when called. If I am late with their food they are  eager to call me so I am now not sure who has trained who exactly!  But we have become firm friends and so my journey into having ducks around me begins. Amazingly my Bearded Collies sit next to the ducks and act  as though they are all one big family. The ducks seem to not mind being herded from time to time and my younger dog feels that is his daily chore. However he has sensed with young around a certain respect is entitled so for now he leaves the family very much alone which is quite sweet.

The excitement this week of  a female duck bringing her young to proudly show me was such a touching moment. Without invading her space I took a few photographs. And I will be watching eagerly to try to make sure the magpie does them no harm.

 Our first duckling family,
Really cute and  very time wasting as it is impossible not to watch them and just love them for  their fluffy forms.

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3 comments:

  1. How sweet and precious and it is great they have adopted you so to speak. These are truly sweet photos and again precious ones that you have taken. On the other hand that magpie does need dealing with doesn't he!

    Blessings
    Page

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  2. We have a canal nearby. I went for a walk along the towpath recently and there was Mother Duck and 10 babies exactly like yours ... beautiful!

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  3. Hello Ingrid and Page, Thank you for leaving comments, they are growing very fast and are still here eating daily from me, they are so very cute.

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