Stability for ducks

No change over the weekend. We've still got 5 chicks over the full range of sizes (2; 1; 2). Interestingly, the mother of the two oldest chicks appears to have flown the coop. Perhaps she's trying to tell her offspring to get moving? No sign of that yet though. Neither has even tried to fly in the quad yet. Waddling around and sitting in the sun seems the order of the day.

Of the other chicks, the middle brood survivor is coming along in size now. It's still something of a taskmaster for its mother, and when we see them together it's routinely dragging her around the quad. We've nicknamed this chick "The Runner" because of its rather wide-ranging habits. The two youngest chicks are still delightful bundles of fluff, but they appear to be coming along fine. Unlike the Runner they tend to follow mum, not the other way around.

At the weekend, C and I saw some ducks living "in the wild" around the pub The White Swan. Interestingly, despite living in what one might believe a more dangerous environment (foxes, etc.), the broods here appeared larger. Given that the ducks in our quad even receive food, they seem to do remarkably badly. Unless there really are unseen predators taking them out. With no bodies, that does seem somewhat likely, but we've never seen anything in the quad that could be doing this.