#duckdaysout

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The Cape Barren or Pig Goose is one of the rarest geese in the world, found mostly in small islands off the coast of Australia. Their ability to drink salt or brackish water allows for large flocks to remain on the islands all year round. They have adapted to feeding on agricultural land, allowing for a reverse in the decline in numbers observed over the past century.

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A male Tufted duck sitting on the warm shore at WWT Slimbridge, surrounded by feathers and quacking his head off.

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A few beautiful Australian Shelducks at WWT Slimbridge, looking super glossy and gorgeous in the sun.

Native to Australia, as the name suggests, these large ducks nest in tree hollows or in holes on banks. The female is distinguished by a ring of white feathers around the eye, as in the bottom pic.

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A super sleepy Andean Goose at WWT Slimbridge.

This little cutie (look at that tiny pink beak!) is not in fact a goose, but is more closely related to the Shelduck. They are terrestial grazing geese normally found at high altitudes in the Andes in South America and only take to the water when threatened.

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A very handsome boy, the gorgeous Bunbury drake at Alde Garden.

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Miss Stripy and the Duck With No Name (yes, that is her name) watch me taking photos at Alde Garden, while big, chunky Frankie grazes in the background.

In a few seconds, he will notice that he doesn’t have the required four feet of personal space and will chase the ducks out of his turf with a lot of loud honking. 

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Stripy girl has a snooze after a good deal of splashing about on the pond and a length preening session. She’s such a beauty!

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Miss Fibble having a big sip at the water’s edge and looking really funny.

Ducks (like many other birds) drink by filling their bills with water and then tipping their heads back to let gravity do the work in getting it down their throats. This means that they often look very silly when having a drink!

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A couple more close ups of my favourite angry man, Mr Frankie Blue Eyes, at Alde Garden.

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Frankie and Rhoda looking chunky and beautiful in a bit of unexpected winter sunshine at Alde Garden.

I love these two big, beautiful boats, even if they’re not particularly impressed with me.

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The Duck With No Name looking gorgeous as always at Alde Garden.

The stripy trio (DWNN, Stripy and Winnie) joined the flock as a little group when their previous owner didn’t want them anymore (can you imagine not wanting this perfect lady?!!) and didn’t pick up names for a while. I named Winnie, short for Winifred, but the others ended up with temporary names that just stuck, hence this little lady’s unusual name!

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My beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, special, wonderful, precious, absolutely perfect drake!

If you haven’t read my very long post on the subject, I’m getting my own ducks!!!!!! And this beaut is one of two lovely Indian Runner drakes that will be coming home with me in March. I can’t tell the boys apart yet so I haven’t applied names, but I know I’m gonna call one Mr Darcy and the other Sir Francis Drake!

Just look at those colours! He was born last year so he hasn’t grown a curly drake tail feather yet, but I’m sure it will come through in the spring!

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A cormorant spreading it’s wings to dry them in the sun at WWT Slimbridge.

I am not entirely sure of the breed of goose populating the banks, but going by the dark bars across the chest and the white ringed, orange beak I would hazard a guess at the Greater White-fronted Goose.

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Bit blurry but they look ever so funny standing all alert and quacking up a storm! They were cross because they had been locked in the pen while the rest of the flock was out splashing about on the pond and gave me a good talking to when I came to see what all the fuss was about.

The reason these five were in here is that the owners of Alde Garden thought I might be taking the two boys back home with me at the end of this visit. Though I would love to have had them here over Christmas, we don’t have anything ready for them so they had to wait.

Now for the funny part, the ducks in the pen were supposed to be the five new bubs including my two boys... except they weren’t because they’d caught the wrong drake! Poor old Bunbury (with the white fleck on his chest and the green head) was in there with them and had a lot to say about it. Meanwhile, my other boy was out on the pond enjoying himself XD !!

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Bob finds something tasty on the edge of the pond at Alde Garden.

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Frankie standing in the duck pen looking grumpy.

This naughty boy came into the duck pen to eat their leftover food from the morning, apparently the two geese like to do this most days and any food that doesn’t belong to them is ten times tastier than what’s in their own bowls!