Water off ........

Poppa duck sometimes still comes looking for food around dusk since he lost his wife and kids.

Mallards have been getting some poor publicity here on blip. But this pair had been mates for at least three years - and he was quite fierce in defending her honour when the hooligans were around earlier in the year. When Momma duck and the chicks were taken away he sat on the wall gazing out to sea for a week. Do ducks grieve? I think so.

This evening he was waiting patiently when I went to close the curtains. I'd never seen how efficiently and how beautifully water does run off a duck's back. He saved us all from a blip of a stack of ironing - and since I've been faffing about choosing etc he's saved me from actually doing the ironing - which is even better.