Story of the ducks

The village of Poulshot has always been known as Poulshot docks.

This was because of the number of ponds that used to be on the green. Maybe it should change its name this year to Poulshot Ducks!

On March 28th our usual pair of ducks arrived hanging around the garden eating the bird seed and swimming in the pond, disappearing every night to return in the morning. Joining them on April 11th a pair of Moorhens also arrived.! ( I keep a diary of the garden visitors). The pair of ducks left as they usually did every year to go elsewhere. Around the beginning of May a lone duck came to have food and left, but on the 13th May she arrived on the patio again with 6 ducklings! Two days later there were only 5!  She had, unknown to us, built a nest near our small pond which is covered with  low pines  trees. After they had fed she took them back to the nest and returned when they wanted to feed. The ducklings were drinking water out of the manhole cover 'cups', so I filled  a 12" plant pot stand with water, they not only drank from it, but also used it as good 'pond' to swim in. As they grew they swam up and down in a grow bag tray I had filled with water further down the garden, they quickly became juvenile delinquents, now running down the garden after feeding to the tray with mother in hot pursuit to keep them in check.

 The moorhens had built a nest on the water lilies in the big pond and hatched one baby (we called it the ugly duckling!) By 25th May, the young ducklings had now started to use the big pond,  so war was declared by the moorhens , but Duck was having non of it and fought back and won! Duck and her young had more or less wrecked the Moorhens nest, so they built a new one and promptly laid 3 more eggs of which only one  hatched. On June 15th, at just four weeks old,  mother and babies started to disappear in the late afternoon, we discovered the duck had decided to remove them from our garden for the night and returning in the morning, by as most of you will know waddling up and down the pavement and roads of the village. I followed them as they zigzagged up the road from one side to the other, shepherding them  and trying to flag down the faster cars, (as recommended by the duck website!) I think quite a few of us did this when they were on the move! they went up to the pond at Planks dairy, and I understand from Kate Hunloke they went on to the Rectory and then onto the green to the Major's pond in the corner and then back again,  I expect some of you will know where else they went!!! June 22nd a single duck appeared in the morning with no ducklings, so we assumed that they had fledged,  but no! on the 23rd June duck plus 5 arrived back again, they had  learnt to flap their wings and try to take off, but they were obviously not yet strong enough to fly . Mother duck was not seen again after 21st July, so the journey up and down the road continued without her, with the dominant duckling taking the lead.   They were visiting intermittently until 29th July when the ducklings visited leaving our drive at 7.30pm  and it was to be their  last journey up the road and did not return to us again. Although I was very sad to see them go, I think we all hope that they have flown off join the ducks on the Crammer or the canal.

The duck was an amazing mother. She managed to rear all 5 ducklings (all drakes) through all the horrors of traffic, cats, foxes, and buzzards. It was an enjoyable time and a privilege for all of us to watch them grow. Roll on next year and maybe mother duck will be back with another brood !! 

Mary Bell and Kate Hunloke