This blog is starting to consume my brain. Wherever I go I am keeping an eye out for things beginning with 'D' that might provide potential inspiration. If I'm with a group of people, I pay most attention to the person whose name begins with 'D'. I go to bed with the 'D' requests floating around my head wondering which direction I should take them. Last night with the knowledge that I was visiting a farm today I wondered whether the request to discuss deranged ducks might present itself. So I stood there at the edge of the duck-pond holding one of my seventeen-month old twins - Ned - in my arms watching carefully for any sign of derangement, but all was peaceful and calm.
Then, suddenly a flurry of frantic wings landed in a heap in front of us. A hen (female duck) was first to emerge but was quickly bitten on the head by a drake (male duck). The drake was halfway through mounting the hen when a second drake got involved and started dragging the first drake away by the head. Now three ducks heads were attached to each other by clamped shut beaks. I was close to intervening, but I thought that this was probably natural mating season behaviour. It turns out that drakes often get left out - I guess because there must be more of them - when its time to get fruity. These drakes don't take this well and wait for an opportunity when a hen is isolated from the other ducks and take advantage. Ned and I must have witnessed two desperate ducks this morning.
The story ended as the hen wriggled free and flew away and the drakes carried on head-biting before pursuing her. I'm hoping her mate came to her rescue from these lonely, but somewhat nasty deranged ducks.
No comments:
Post a Comment