bird brains!!

[kriklah]

had an interesting day with birds today. the chimney in the utility room was swept out last week as we are getting a solid fuel boiler put in there, and we removed what may have been 20+ years worth of crow/rooks nest(some of it was like compost!!) as a result hearing cheeping noise from the room earlier, i ignord it, assuming it was the birds sat at the top of the chimney again. a bit later my 5 year old come through telling my there was a baby duck in the kitchen. i said, is it a toy one, no she says its a real baby duck, so i went to look, and sure enough theres this tiny little fluffy duckling in the cupboard off the utilty!!!!!! now theres no way it got in itself, so i can only assume either one of my cats brought it in, though i doubt that as the cat would have most likely killed it already or injured it. the only other explanation would be the crows/rooks, or some other big bird, haveing pulled it off the river, had sat on our chimney and droped it down. so there i was with this cute little fluff ball, probly not more than a day or two old and no sign of injury, wondering what to do with it(my frog pond would be way too small!), so i took it down the road to a neighbour that has ducks and chickens. its definatly not one of his as its a mallard, his ducks are currenly sitting on eggs and a chicken has new chicks so he said he'll see if he can get it into one of their nests otherwise he has an incubator to try, and hell keep me informed on how it does.

second incident today was, as i came back from walking the dog a few minites ago, i spotted an owl, trying to raid the martins nest on my eves!!! poor things have only just got it rebuilt after it colapes a couple of years ago, they didnt come back for it last year so i was pleased to see them back now, no idea if theres chick in there yet, not heard anything from them

[Kevin Milkins]

Sounds like an eventfull Kriklah,and it sounds like one lucky duck.

[teenybash]

Phew!!!! What an unusual day.......and to find a lone duckling waddling in your utility.............makes a great story though and good that someone is going to rear it....piccys will be in order you know..;)