Aqua Ducks!

At the start of this year, we added some VERY cute little feathered friends to our menagerie…

They arrived in the weeks after tragically losing our previous ducks (Bubbles, Troubles and Nibbles).

We picked up four new bundles of down from the same place the original trio were hatched – although these are ‘Indian Runners’ as opposed to ‘Welsh Harlequin’. Now if you are on the same sharp learning curve that I am on with regards to Duck Knowledge, you will be looking blankly at your screen right about now.  Basically, Indian Runners are those strange VERY UPRIGHT ducks that look like they are conducting a syncronised racing walk, whereas Welsh Harlequins are those more typical waddling from side-to-side squat ducks, along your ‘ceramic garden ornament’ line.

One thing I WILL say about our feathered foursome… they GROW at the most astounding rate!

These shots were taken on January 14…

Dash getting ‘daddled’…

Hellooooooo… what is this strange rock upon which I find myself stranded?

Violet, of course, was in Duck Heaven…

I christen thee… Daisy!

Or is that Maisy, Crazy or Lazy?

She has a way with names, our daughter!

So that was then… this is NOW…

I. KNOW.

In the space of a few weeks (less than 7)…  Our cute fluffy bits of slightly terrified down (seriously, someone joked they look like one duck with four heads as they scuttled huddled as far from any moving thing as possible) have become…PROPER DUCKS.

At about 4 weeks of age we decided they were took big for the aluminium baking tray that had served as they paddle pool, and filled the toddlers’ pool we had used with their predecessors.

They were even MORE terrified of that than they were of us – no amount of coaxing, gentle herding or quiet patience and leaving ‘steps’ into the pool persuaded them. For WEEKS.  They would DRINK out of it, but they were NOT getting their tootsies into THAT thankyouverymuch.

The one day, one duck fell in. Seriously. I wish I’d caught it on camera… the white one (Daisy) looked startled after overbalancing on the stepping stone and ending up in the drink.  Then (as I smothered giggles and tried not to startle her OUT of it again) began to swim… around …. and around… and AROUND!

A duck-piphany!

Now they spend half their day in it…

Now you’d think they’d taken to it like…

Well…

(Do I even need to say it?)

We still miss Nibbles, Bubbles and Troubles… the latter of whom had taken to climing to the top of our steps, and then wait to be chased down off the deck so he could flap-like-crazy and try to fly.

Apparently Indian Runners are even less likely to get off the ground than Welsh Harlequins…

As long as they stop growing soon – not sure I could handle emu-size fowl alongside my pony-sized dog!

So there you are – an abbreviated history of Daisy, Maisy, Crazy and Lazy.

😀