Mallard Central

Today fifteen adolescents returned - this could have been the remains of the brood of sixteen that left a while ago. They hung around doing quite a bit of resting and sleeping. The brood that was born about a month ago seems to be only two ducklings now so they were also on the water. Then this evening I spotted a recently born brood of six ducklings - they looked to be only a day or two old. That makes in excess of fifty mallard ducklings born this year - as opposed to a grand total of eighteen in the last three years. One of the adolescents started to get aggressive with the young ducklings. The mother was chased off by another of the adolescents. I shouted at them and it stopped for a few minutes. The next time it happened the mother had a go at the perp herself. Hopefully that will be the end of it as the ducklings cannot defend themselves and don't seem to have the sense to keep a low profile.