Garden Blog – Out for a Duck

I hoped to find a topic for a blog on our weekly trip to the National Botanic Garden of Wales today but I was busy in the office all the morning.  We do get time off for good behaviour to eat our lunch and we usually like to sit outside, weather permitting.  Today we sat on one of those nice benches half way up the Broadwalk.  It’s a lovely sheltered spot and as we sat and ate our sandwiches we were visited by a beautiful male chaffinch.   He asked if he could share our lunch (did I mention that I’m fluent in bird?), so we gave him a couple of crumbs – yes, yes I know all the arguments about that –and he seemed very happy because he immediately burst forth in song.  He sang away for a few seconds and then someone came along and he flew off to continue in a nearby Ginko.

We went back to work after that but when I had finished the job I started in the morning I was asked to go down to the Aqualab.  There were quite a lot of people at the Garden and it was nice to chat to some of them as I walked.  When I got down to the Circle of Decision I noticed a duck with four little ducklings paddling in the shallows on the outside of the main fountain.  Well ducklings are always enchanting aren’t they, so I couldn’t resist stopping to take some photos.  The brave one (there always is one) jumped up onto the rim around the fountain only to be followed by the others while Mum quacked gently in warning.  I turned away to pick up the bag I had been carrying and when I turned back, one of the ducklings was in the main pool being buffeted by the wind and the fountain.  I went on my way but couldn’t help thinking that it was easy to get down into the water but so much harder to get back up.   Anyway, I did the job I’d come to do and when I got back to the Circle of Decision there was no sign of any of the ducks.  Ah well, at least they had all gone so the one in the pool must have got out.  I started my walk back up the Broadwalk and there in front of me was a little group of people with cameras poised and walking, or should that be waddling, up alongside the Rill were Mum and the kids.  They were going at a pretty good pace, for ducks, and by the time I got my camera out they had disappeared.  Well they had to be somewhere and then I saw a movement in the pond by the Rocks of Ages and there they were foraging around in the pond plants.  I don’t know where they came from originally, probably one of the lakes, but that’s quite a walk for a duck never mind four little ducklings.

Pam Murden

Comments are closed.