Rotten old day, went out with friends to a Vides Greniers ( the French equivalent to car boot sale ) and it just rained and rained however I did manage to find two old Robert Doisneau Calenders with very high quality prints of his photographs so it was well worth the trip, then we were treated to a lovely meal at our friends'.
So today I will introduce you to our Ducks:-
This is Tuck; he is our male Pintail. He and his mate are captive-bred but now have the freedom of our garden- and its large pond. They are migrant marshland birds who breed close to the coast in the many marshy areas over here in France, they can also be seen in the UK. It has taken over two years for them to get used to me and get close enough to them to get a good shot.
This is his other half Nip trying to scratch her nose/beak which can be hard if you are a duck.
Nip is slimmer and smaller than our other ducks, who are mallards. She has an almost round head and is a lot more dainty then most other ducks.
This is Blue B he is the only male mallard we still have in the garden as they will fight and injure themselves if there are too many males in a small area; we have had it in the past where a male almost lost his eye due to fighting over females ( a bit like a Friday night outside an English pub ), our extra ducks are relocated to safe areas along the Vienne river.
This is Twinnie- one she is one of our younger girls, I will introduce you to the rest at some time in the future.
Finally this was to-night's sunset from our friends' garden, overlooking the Dive valley...............................
So today I will introduce you to our Ducks:-
This is Tuck; he is our male Pintail. He and his mate are captive-bred but now have the freedom of our garden- and its large pond. They are migrant marshland birds who breed close to the coast in the many marshy areas over here in France, they can also be seen in the UK. It has taken over two years for them to get used to me and get close enough to them to get a good shot.
This is his other half Nip trying to scratch her nose/beak which can be hard if you are a duck.
Nip is slimmer and smaller than our other ducks, who are mallards. She has an almost round head and is a lot more dainty then most other ducks.
They find it very difficult when the pond freezes over - they are not built for it. However, Tuck can do a very good impression of a speed skater when needed.
This is Blue B he is the only male mallard we still have in the garden as they will fight and injure themselves if there are too many males in a small area; we have had it in the past where a male almost lost his eye due to fighting over females ( a bit like a Friday night outside an English pub ), our extra ducks are relocated to safe areas along the Vienne river.
He is here with his girls, five in all, they can be seen what we call grass snorkeling, looking for insects and other nice bits and pieces deep in the grass, they normally go side by side and look like a line of police doing a fingertip search of the area.
They are very efficient as we now have a lot less mosquitoes etc., since the Ducks and Chickens have been roaming the garden. The ducks are incredibly quick at catching insects when they try to fly away - they don't miss many and it means we get a lot less bites when working in the garden than before we introduced our feathered friends.
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