Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos
Canon 600mm f4.5 for 1/2500th @ iso400
One of the few ducklings that hatched this year having made it to a reasonable size, still in a family group, but it has made it to a decent size avoiding the many hazards others have not.
It was Friday of this week that one of the neighbours ushered out of her back garden a group of 8 ducklings across the road and onto the pond. In the previous days when the ducklings where in her garden, the garden had resembled a seen from Alfred Hitchcock The Birds, as the crows having discovered them sat about on her boundary fence waiting for the right moment to grab one of the ducklings.
By Saturday there were only 5 ducklings left and then by Saturday evening 4 as one fell victim to one of the Herring Gulls.
One of the few ducklings that hatched this year having made it to a reasonable size, still in a family group, but it has made it to a decent size avoiding the many hazards others have not.
It was Friday of this week that one of the neighbours ushered out of her back garden a group of 8 ducklings across the road and onto the pond. In the previous days when the ducklings where in her garden, the garden had resembled a seen from Alfred Hitchcock The Birds, as the crows having discovered them sat about on her boundary fence waiting for the right moment to grab one of the ducklings.
By Saturday there were only 5 ducklings left and then by Saturday evening 4 as one fell victim to one of the Herring Gulls.