Duck decoy

I went on another guided walk today, not too far from home. We were in luck, because we were allowed to see the Duck decoy, a place used to catch wild ducks. In the old days they would belong to the landlord, later on they would be sold for consumption. Nowadays most ducks are set free after they have been given a ring for research.

The decoy has a pond with tame ducks. These ducks fly away in the night and return in the morning for their food, bringing along wild ducks. The ducks are spooked by the decoyman, after calculating the right spot to spook them. They flee in a certain direction and get into the kind of tunnel you see in the photo. This tunnel gets more low and more narrow all along, until the ducks are trapped inside the final trap.

It was very interesting to hear and see this!