Duck egg mystery

I found six broken mallard eggs on the lawn and a few feathers around a couple of the broken eggs. I am a bit clueless as to the culprit. The duck and drake seem perfectly OK - they are not behaving any differently. I guess a fox would be a possibility but it would be surprising if a confrontation between a fox and a duck would leave just a few feathers. I suppose the local crows could have done it -assuming they can fit duck eggs in their beaks. Maybe rats could be the perps. I assume it would not be part of the love triangle currently playing out on the moat with a jealous drake responsible? It seems far fetched but I can't rule it out until someone who has some expertise in this area can enlighten me.

Diving mallard

There is just one female on site so far this breeding season (pictured). As discussed in previous blog entries she has been the subject of heavy competition between two drakes although that particular situation seems to have calmed down over the last week or so. However she has a peculiarity that I have not previously observed with adults mallards - she spends a lot of time diving for food. All mallards dabble - that's when they stick their heads under the water and use their feet to keep themselves facing vertically down. Also the ducklings go through an entertaining phase when they dive under water and then bob up like corks. However she has been regularly diving for food whilst her accompanying drake continues to dabble. It seems that this behaviour is seldom seen with mallards. My theory is that she was brought up on the moat ( I have always assumed that the ducks that breed here are from the ones previously raised here) and learned the behaviour from the Tufted ducks that were here last year which are proper diving ducks.

Frogs spawning

There seem to be more frogs than ever spawning in the moat. Given the predators that await the tadpoles it is pleasing to see that numbers of adults returning to spawn seem to be increased this year. The increase if depth of water in the moat has meant that one of the two sites where the frogs spawn is now just an area of water whereas the other is shallower and amongst reeds. In the former the spawning takes place under water and the spawn is resting on the bottom whereas in the reedy area it is all at the surface (pictured). It seems as if the frogs are programmed to return to the areas they spawn in rather than the particular conditions pertaining.

The wagtail has a mate

Yesterday a female wagtail joined the male that has been hanging around for the last few days. She has a grey back compared with the black back of the male (pictured). As I tend not to see pied wagtails outside spring I doubt that they have a nest site very close so maybe our lawn is just an attractive open site for choosing a mate??

Spring activity

There are lots of signs of Spring. There is some serious contention on the mallard mating front for one thing. A pair of mallard have been hanging around together for a few weeks but a second male is trying to move in and it's starting to get physical. The battle takes place on the water, on land and in the air. It has degenerated into violence but the duck is very clear about her preference. When she is with her chosen drake she swims closely behind him darting her head diagonally and making a murmuring sort of noise. The frogs are back spawning for another thing. You can hear them purring - it sounds just like a cat.... Tawny owls have also been around in the last few days although I am not sure whether that is a feature of Spring. There has also been a pied wagtail around - they do seem to appear in March and April but are not often seen here at other times. There has also been some frequent buzzard visits in the last week but the resident crows generally escort them from the area pretty quickly.

Fox tracks

The snow has afforded the opportunity to detect a fox foraging very close to the house last night. The footprints were a bit indistinct as the snow had become a bit slushy but they seem to correspond to the features of a fox rather than a cat. I was surprised to learn that a fox adopts a different gait in snow. On a firm surface it trots with a diagonal gait so that the fore and hind footprints are obliquely next to each other. In snow it adopts a straight position and the footprints are found in a straight line.

Goldcrest seen locally

Just a couple of days after the Garden Birdwatch I was walking across farmland less than a mile away when I had a close encounter with a Goldcrest - a species that I have yet to record on Moat House land. It seemed happy to be foraging on a tree less than a couple of metres away from me. These are not uncommon and I have seen them a couple of times before in the village but not for the last four or five years.