The village creche

Male eider ducks are terrible fathers. As soon as their mates are incubating, the drakes are off, looking for further sexual opportunities, and have no interest whatsoever in feeding their mates or caring for the ducklings when they hatch. The mothers feed only rarely during incubation and as a result are in an emaciated and very weak state when the young finally hatch. Once on the river, the mothers and any failed breeders, known colloquially as "aunts", gather together, to form a creche, and cooperate in protecting the ducklings from marauding gulls. In the photograph a creche and its guardians are resting on the old village sewer pipe.