Quack quack...

It's probably a bit difficult to make out the actual ducks in this photo; the young are the dark brown furry blobs paddling in the tiniest amount of water. The water levels are extremely low this year and although we have a duck family nesting somewhere very near to us every year this morning was the first time we have seen them.

Previous years have been quite sad. The Mother duck starts out with about 12 ducklings and usually ends up with 2 or 3. We're not sure what happens to them but there is the road, foxes, drains (we once saw half a dozen ducklings fall down a drain, but luckily were rescued).

This year the Mother has ten ducklings who have all reached a very good size so that's a big improvement on the last six or seven years. She certainly knows where to get a few slices of bread!