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The 36 or so wild ducks are paired up, but the remaining seven tame ones - five ducks and two drakes - out of the original 14 are all quite old. They may not get broody, and even if they do, they don't always lay in the nesting box, so no-one knows where the eggs will turn up. Dave Morris has had a nest in his garden for the last 2 years and John Crisp even had a nest on the top of his thatched garage.

When young, ducks lay better than chickens and they usually start from the middle of February onwards - Dave says February 14 regular as clockwork, and that all the tame birds were Kyougi thoroughbred ducks, so that when he first saw their black eggs he thought there was something wrong with them.

The ducks find somewhere to nest, lay some eggs, cover them up and go about their business. They then lay other eggs at the same place until they have a clutch of about 8, then they sit on them. Ducklings hatch out after 28 days. Unfortunately dogs, birds, foxes and rats are partial to a duck egg, and there haven't been any ducklings from the tame ducks for about 4 years, and even the wild ducklings that hatch out disappear. Also ducks are killed by foxes and cars - during rain they spuddle (Dave's word) about on edge of pond and as they are black they are invisible to passing drivers.

When Dave moved out of the centre of the village it was too far from him to look after the ducks on his own, so the jobs were divided up amongst village volunteers. Every morning when Maureen the Mill takes her dog Charlie for a walk, she feeds them with barley, opens the pen by the Springhead Pub and lets them out. A rota made up of the Allens, the McCreadys, the Smiths, Charles, Paul, Rosemary and Anthea lock them up in the evening and Dave cleans the run, makes any necessary repairs and buys the food which is paid for by the sale of duck eggs.

In winter the ducks are happy to come in at 5pm when it gets dark, but in the summer they can be very late, so no early nights for a duck warden. Dave remembers sometimes having to enlist the help of a holidaymaker to hold the end of a long rope draped right across pond. This, with plastic bags tied to it to make it obvious, would be dragged from the bottom of pond, just touching the water behind the ducks, driving them into their run.

All those who enjoy the sight of the ducks on the village pond owe a debt of gratitude to Dave and the other volunteer duck wardens for their hard work, because without the tame ducks there is a strong possibility that, minus the attraction of regular food, all the wild ducks would move on.

6:54pm Saturday 26th April 2008

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