Surprising Things About Ducklings…

Firstly – the most surprising thing was getting five of them today!
Honestly… this was how my blog was going to go:
“Weather, which has been dark, gloomy, wet & miserable has just spiraled into feral. Stayed in my nightie & dressing gown all day.” The End.
I was going along pretty well with my nightie wearing plan, when of course someone knocks on the door.
Friend of mine, Ellen has spotted a duck that has been killed on the highway and needed help as there were a bunch of ducklings in danger of also dying of squash.

So I hurriedly drag on clothes, get box and gumboots, yell for husband to come along and start trotting up the highway
I wish I had more photos from today!!
No sign of ducklings. We took the body of the mother duck off the road as we figured the babies would want to be where mum was. And we were too late for one duckling. (By the way these are not the photos I would have been talking about that I wanted)

Jeff is with us – in sandals and shorts??? Seriously?
Mad.
We located the ducklings eventually – which was hard as the area is so overgrown. Jeff got right into the scrub to shoo them back off the side of the highway…. which is straight into a paddock of blackberries.
My – that was fun!!

So – we have an undisclosed number of speeding peeping ducklings racing around in and under the blackberry canes and us with a box, enthusiasm and no idea how to catch them.
Lady on corner house comes out to see what the commotion is – happens to be work mate of Jeffs and as luck would have it – owns a net!

So – because I am the sensible one with boots & long pants, I am in the blackberry bushes trying to dissuade ducklings from returning to the highway while the others move to shoo them where Jeff can net them!
Eventually we got them all (oh I hope we got them all!!) and popped them peeping and squeaking into the box.

Jeff by this stage is covered in scratches and blood and we are both soaking wet as the rain was really coming down (naturally!)
Said “see you later” to Ellen and took our new pets home.

They were SO adorable!! I have always wanted ducks!
They are funny and naughty. Very keen to get out. Opening carrier door to put some food in was problematic… it was like juggling ducklings trying to toss them back from the opening to get the stuff in!! (They just boomerang back to the gap!)

Luckily with a post on facebook one of my local friends, Gudrun, offered some food and warm lamps or a home as they are used to raising feathery babies and have a bunch of goslings at the moment under lights.
I sadly decided they would be better with someone that knows what they are doing – plus since we are leaving soon for a month I thought it would be unfair on our young house sitter leaving him with five little Houdini’s!

So I take a little drive into the country. Gudrun was most amused to see the teddy bear. She thought it best to tell me up front that the ducklings were not going to be pampered and brought inside etc – survival of fittest and all that! haha Gave me the option to take them home with some gear.
I figured whatever happens they have a much better chance than on the highway overnight without their mother!
So we put them in with the goslings which were twice their size – but ran to the corner in terror of the invasion of the little fuzzy ducklings!

Of course – the ducklings eventually aimed for the gaps in the shelter, so we patched them up and I went to have a look at the shelters that they had for chicks. (Ideas for the future!)

This is where I REALLY wish I had photos.
Two Houdini-bat-ducklings got out and squeezed through the fence into a big paddock!
Hungry keen dogs on one side, hungry pig on the other!!!
If you have not had ducklings – you have NO idea how fast they can run!!!
Gudrun ran to get some netting while I headed them off from being first course on the pigs nightly buffet (heart stopping moments as I am bolting through the paddock in my gumboots waving my arms about)
Gudrun returns with netting… ducklings split up. So undignified running about trying to fling nets over them… and with all the rain – no traction whatsoever. Naturally I fell over

Gudrun got hers, mine went helter skelter into the adjoining paddock (no pig)
I thought it best to take the duckling and zip it up in my pocket while we got the next one.
Gudrun was the next to fall over ungracefully in the mud! (She is NEVER going to invite me back I am sure! haha)

We finally got it between us and she flung the net out and just caught it on the edge, then dived in before it could detangle!
Duckling unceremoniously dumped into my pocket with its sibling (My windcheater pockets are at the front so I am now feeling a bit kangaroo-like)

Plan B. They have quail with mouse-proof wire.
I said I was filthy already so I could crawl into the gosling shelter and fish out the remaining ducklings.

Gurdun set up the heat lamp and put fresh hay in and we poured in a few handfuls and a pocketful of ducklings.
They then spent the next five minutes flinging themselves at the wire to test for weaknesses:

I did get a message later saying that her husband had put a slightly warmer lamp in and the ‘Little Bats’ were all heaped together in a puddle of feathers trying to sleep!! Nawwww

So lucky to have good friends around! (And probably lucky ducklings in the end that Ellen spotted them and we somehow managed to catch them!!)

Hope you enjoyed the Duckling Tales!
Cheers!