Duck update

Despite several weeks of apparent absence, the ducks are back, and they have lots of chicks! Yesterday it appeared that we had a single mother in the quad with a record (in our somewhat limited experience) seven chicks. However, today it appears that we have a second mother in the quad, with an as-yet-unknown number of chicks. We've heard them, we know roughly which bush they're in, but we haven't been able to count them yet. It could just be that, statistically, we've not been looking for long enough, but it may be that the second batch of chicks are too still young to follow their mother out of the nest. Anyway, thus far it doesn't appear that anyone's feeding them, so deleterious competition for resources may result. And we've suspicions about where that led last year. Also, the mother whose chicks we've seen occupies the sector of the quad that affords her easy access to both of the ponds. A definite disparity there. So it's all still to play for.