Ducks umbrella

I was all ready to hang up my pager when I got a call at midnight from one of our clients in early labour. When I finally arrived home after the birth I was met by this lovely scene. The story behind this Blip is.....

Our feisty female duck was very clever and hatched seventeen eggs 3 weeks ago. Sadly she has been killing off her brood. Now there are only six. I wasn't sure why she was killing her own as ducks are quite maternal . On reflection raising 17 babies in a large garden probably isn't ideal and in the wild many would fall prey to predators. I've witnessed a black back gull plucking a small lone chick from the water. Being big softies we couldn't cope with her killing spree and so rescued a further 6 ducklings from the beak of death. They now live in a makeshift orphanage.

So here are the "chosen ones" sheltering from the rain.