The last time I wrote about the ducks it was June with the whole summer ahead. Today the sun has gone into Virgo, the last astrological sign of summer. In a month's time it shall be autumn.
Matt and Margaret went to Bar Harbor, Maine on vacation the end of June and Tom and I babysat the ducks, draining out the water in their cellar pool and filling it up again once a day. They would get so excited when the fresh water was added.
These two photos taken with my cell phone.
As soon as Margaret and Matt came home, they went to work on putting up fence around the outdoor enclosure. With all the rain we'd had, that whole area was quite full of water. When the drier weather hit a few weeks ago, the water disappeared, but now is back again. The ducks have their 'in-house' baby pool for when there's no water to swim around in. The tarp is to keep out the heat of the sun. There are plans for winterizing.
It's a little glade in there. I just love it, and can't imagine a better place for duckies.
Looking back toward the enclosure - you can see they have quite a large space in which to roam and swim.
Lots of little places to explore.
The big news is that now they've grown up enough, we can tell there is a male and a female, a drake and a duck. The drake has a green head, a white ring around the neck, and that little curled up duck tail feather.
This means that when the duck lays eggs, if they aren't picked up, they will hatch into baby ducklings. That's the story with chickens too. All hens lay eggs. If there is a rooster, then the eggs are fertilized eggs. If those eggs aren't collected, they will hatch into baby chicks.
They followed me as I left, and went in to have a little lunch.
There's more on Rouen ducks here, and some photos here. They are the sweetest creatures; very friendly and cheery.
When I walked back to the house there were dear Piglet and Lexi waiting for me to let them in.
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