Ay up mi duck!

Although I normally focus on small pet birds I was intrigued to find something yesterday, OK it's about a duck but why not talk about it here, after all a duck is still a bird when all is said and done.

Yesterday I found myself being the allocated driver for a trip to the hospital as my nephew had to go in for a minor operation.



The notice on the planter



Whilst we were outside the relevant department at The Queens Medical Centre Hospital ('t'Queen's med' to the locals) I spotted a little note (see image) attached to a wooden planter  'A Duck has made a nest in here. Please leave her in peace, thank you!'  On closer inspection I saw mother duck laid in the planter, no doubt incubating her eggs.  I knew instinctively that what I saw was a female mallard.  So I took a photo of her (see image); sorry for the quality of the photos but all I had was the built-in camera on my rather old mobile phone.



Mrs. Duck on her eggs



This situation just goes to show how versatile our wildlife has become, constantly adapting to changes in habitat (the urban fox is another good example).
I decided on a quick 'Google' search for more stuff and found a few items:

Firstly a duck had returned to a store in the USA for a second year to build its nest in a rather unusual place.  Click this link for the story.

Here's another mallard duck story for your reading pleasure, and another one here.

So as you can see, what I saw is not that unusual after all.

Find more mallard info here at 'Wikipedia' or here at 'RSPB'.

Finally some mallard 'YouTube' videos for you to view:
Baby mallards in someones swimming pool, drake mallard mating display, house mallards, duck eggs hatch in parking lot, mallard mini-documentary, mallard family in someones garden, and another duck vid.

That's enough about the common mallard to keep you going for now I think.

But I can't do a piece about ducks without mentioning the most famous duck of all.  Take it away Donald!

Enjoy!

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