Wild Energy and Excitement on the Pond....

 What a wonderful surprise this morning when Brian called out from the kitchen that there were ducklings on the pond....and sure enough, there they were, the black ducks with a half a dozen ducklings swimming about busily feeding in among the water lilies. I ran to get my camera at once and took a host of photos because in all the years we have observed the ducks mating on the pond, we have never seen where they nest or if they ever did have ducklings. So here they were busily dashing about in the rocks and swimming amongst the waterlilies.

Here is a puzzle though, Father Duck is a Mallard with his handsome green head and colourful body markings. Has the male black duck changed plumage or is it an entirely different male duck and if he is,where did he come from? He mostly stood guard on the bank but in the end he did come into the water.
I have never seen so much energy as in these ducklings... they were in the water...out the water ...round the fish fountain..back with Mum...scrambling up the rocks ...following each other with amazing speed.... 

 Mum decided this was enough and waddled away and one of the ducklings was left behind getting confused as to which rock to climb on to get out.... she promptly returned and he found a way out...
They were last seen heading west and we assume they probably came from the "wetlands" which are about three hundred meters west, up our road. A long way for tiny little webbed feet to have to go.....

 Our weather pattern is completely changed.
We have had 37 degree days Monday week ago and then a change roared in and we had a savage hailstorm the following Wednesday, the front garden was completely covered with hail as you can see in the photo on the right if you click on it.
I don't know how that has affected the vineyards around here but you wonder about the grapes. I know the fruit growers in the Adelaide hills had very badly damaged young apples, pears and cherries.

After the storm finished I went looking for the Tawny Frogmouths and found them huddled together in the Ashtree protecting their young chick. Did you know that Australia is the only country that has this particular Frogmouth?
The CSIRO have published a fascinating book of studies done on the Frogmouth , some very interesting information about these very special Zen Birds....
Wished I could sit as still and unperturbed in this mad human world as they can....