Ducks = 0

It's finally happened: we have no ducks left in the quad. I've been looking all this week, but there's no sign of the Runner. While I'd like to think that he/she has merely left the quad, I'm pretty sure that flying out wasn't an option. Unbeknownst to me until yesterday, the woman who organises feeding the ducks was taken ill last week, and this may factor in the Runner's "departure". By coincidence, I'd mailed her last week to see if she needed a hand with the feeding - I had thought that the zero response meant "no".

Anyway, assuming that I'm correct, that's a bit of a sad end to this year's duck season. It would also make for rather grim breeding success stats: 2 out of 32; a rather paltry 6.25%. And that's just to leave the quad - survival rate is unlikely to improve in the big wide world (actually, knowing the quad, perhaps it would!). It certainly puts a new spin on the "mother" of "Mother Nature".