Tuesday 9th May 2017
Sad and worrying news
Incredibly sad and worrying news: BOTH Banana AND her duckling have vanished. They were last seen yesterday afternoon, they did not appear at corn time and have not been seen since. So many questions are swirling around: have the geese been innocent all along? Did the duckling get taken and Banana simply flew off? Did Banana wander off with the duckling and now cannot (or does not want to) find her way home?
We are sure we don’t have a big predator such as a fox as the alarm calls from the other birds would be clearly audible from the house, plus there would probably be a mess of feathers. We might have smaller predators such as rats or weasels but again we would expect a mess and some shrieking, maybe? Plus why have both birds gone?
Speculation is a tad useless as we will never know but we are now faced with bigger problems. Firstly, do we let our Indian Game chicks and mum outside on the basis we may have a nasty predator around and secondly, what are we going to do about Grape the drake? He now has just one wife left and she is sat on eggs with another four weeks of incubating time left to go.
He will be pining (we witnessed his ‘grief' three years ago when one of his then wives flew off, he kept looking for her for quite a few days, visiting the place she was last seen. Horrible to watch!)
We feel we may have no alternative but to buy in two to three more females in order to keep him happy but then until we know if we do have a predator problem, is that a wise course of action?
We don't actually think we 'do' have a predator issue as we just feel we would be aware of something, plus we have our errant broody sitting on eggs in the garden AND Elizabeth in the open pig arc sitting on her eggs 24/7, and both these birds are fine, despite being easy pickings should a predator so desire. We feel very sad about Banana no longer being here. She has been part of our smallholding for three and a half years and has raised oodles of ducklings in that time. The photos is a lovely memory to have.
Speculation is a tad useless as we will never know but we are now faced with bigger problems. Firstly, do we let our Indian Game chicks and mum outside on the basis we may have a nasty predator around and secondly, what are we going to do about Grape the drake? He now has just one wife left and she is sat on eggs with another four weeks of incubating time left to go.
He will be pining (we witnessed his ‘grief' three years ago when one of his then wives flew off, he kept looking for her for quite a few days, visiting the place she was last seen. Horrible to watch!)
We feel we may have no alternative but to buy in two to three more females in order to keep him happy but then until we know if we do have a predator problem, is that a wise course of action?
We don't actually think we 'do' have a predator issue as we just feel we would be aware of something, plus we have our errant broody sitting on eggs in the garden AND Elizabeth in the open pig arc sitting on her eggs 24/7, and both these birds are fine, despite being easy pickings should a predator so desire. We feel very sad about Banana no longer being here. She has been part of our smallholding for three and a half years and has raised oodles of ducklings in that time. The photos is a lovely memory to have.