It's difficult to be sure about the rate at which it's happening, since I'm not making a concerted effort to head-count them, but the duckling count is definitely down since the start of this week. Then, both mothers had around 15 chicks each, but today the broods are both down to less than 10 each, although it isn't terribly easy to count them quickly.
I've also not been keeping track of violations of the food-embargo. The declining duckling number hints at no further breeches, and I certainly can't see anything down there just now, but duck-on-duckling murder is (apparently) at least as common a Malthusian scythe as starvation.
Actually, that probably makes the quad sound at little to much like some sort of Roman Amphitheatre, with gladiator-style duckling action in the arena. So far, I've yet to see anything bad happen at all. From my perspective, ducklings just disappear, but I'm assured that there are nefarious goings-on down below.
Friday 23 April 2010
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