I was wrong about the rain and wrong about the ducks. For anyone who has read my entries around water you'd realise how nervous I've been about whether the drought and Il Nino really are over. You'd also know that I thought only one duck would hatch out a nest. Well this last weekend (1st-2nd Dec) it poured with rain again, really poured and poured. Just like the other day. All our water storage is full, (granted it's modest storage). Our ponds are full, the ground is nice and wet and more importantly it's all rain that has fallen in the catchment and it's raining in the catchment of the Snowy River and the headwaters of the mighty Murray - yay, rain for Adelaide and the Murray River.
I also thought that only the old lady mummy duck would hatch out her nest but again, I was wrong. This little brown duck has hatched out 4 babies, though one little yellow one didn't survive the stormy night. Still, she is up now off the nest and taking her babies for a walk. They usually sit tight for about 2 or 3 days on the nest keeping the babies safe and warm and letting the straggler eggs have a chance to hatch out.
She has one yellow one and two brown with yellow wing tips. So cute. They are so sweet paddling around after their mother. It is interesting that the two successful ducks have been brownish in colour. I think they may have some Khaki Campbell in them and our experience from previously was that the Khaki Campbells, which are prolific egg layers are also fairly good mothers.
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