August on the pond

Do you remember the tiny ducklings incubated by Hanbury First School,"Rosie and Jim"?  They are now nearly fully grown now and are jolly big ducks!  Here they are (left) with their friends "Bubble and Squeak" (right) who are not quite as old but quite a lot smaller -  "Bubble" is the same bred of duck (Pekin) as Rosie and Jim but we don't think he will ever catch them up - the only explanation we have come up with is the extremely good care that they had at school!  ("Squeak" is a Mini -Appleyard and he/she will never be large).  They are all still going back into their pen every night - but methinks that this is just because they have a ready supply of food rather than for safety!

During the week 4 new ducklings were spotted on the top pond - they appeared to be on their own with no mum offering protection.  They asked for help from many of my colleagues but none were that interested. Eventually they got cold and just sat on the edge of the pond shivering, fortunately one of the humans spotted them and has now put them in the pen under a hot lamp and they are all fine. It was all a bit of a puzzle though - as to where they came from.  The mystery was solved two days later when another 4 ducklings appeared - very similar in colour to the first batch, this time however the mum was with them.  The poor mum must have hatched one batch of ducklings early and, knowing the others were still incubating, had to decide which batch to look after.  The next four out are being very well looked after as you can see below!  Happily the first four should survive too, with a little human intervention.  I wonder if mum will recognise them when she see them again?

Proud mum with 4 multicoloured ducklings

It has been quite a busy week in the gardens again this week with lots of visitors.  On Tuesday Jets Crafts were here doing decopatch and pottery painting for children in the courses room and Mark from Marksman leisure was here with what looked like giant pods.  It tuns out that the children went inside to shoot each other with laser guns - looked great fun - he is coming back!. On Wednesday and Friday the garden was full of lovely music from violin busker Jo Lucas.

The laser "pods"