The Mysterious Mystery of the Missing Mummy Mallard

02/05/2010 by Aileen.

Oh dear. Weeks ago ( I don’t do calendars) I noticed a female mallard sniffing  investigating a patch in our front garden border. A while later I discovered she was sitting on a nest. I kept an eye on her without getting too close, and in the end I was worried that she was dead. She didn’t seem to move and her eye was very dull looking. Then one day she had turned 180 degrees (horizontally) so I knew she was alive.

One day when I checked, she had gone, and the nest was empty. I thought ‘phantom pregnancy’. I checked a couple of days later, and she was back! I threw some peanuts down, and left.

Then, yesterday when I checked, I heard a peep peep peeping, and I saw a duckling. I rushed in for my camera, but when I got back I only saw the female, and left. An hour or two later I checked again, and there were two little ducklings ‘peeping’ out at me. But when I got my camera there was only the mum on view.

Today I checked again, and the nest was empty but I saw a few whole eggs and some egg shells. See the photo below. I don’t know what has happened.

I’m hoping she took the two ducklings down to the water. It will be a longish journey for them. They’ll have to get out of our garden and across the lane. They can’t access the canal straight ahead of us as there’s a little brick wall, so they’ll have to waddle up or down a bit until the reach grass, and then they can cross to the water.

I dunno. I’ll update you all when I know a bit more.

see ya.

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