New friends

This young lady didn’t flinch when I approached, and in fact I didn’t spot her fledgling brood at first. Yet I am sure she was probably more aware of my presence than I was of theirs.
There was a solitary duckling possibly getting its first swim in the pond while the remaining were snuggled on the bank of the farmyard pond just inches away from mum.
I remember at one time we had two ducks visit us in our garden at home on several occasions and seemed quite at home waddling around our lawn. We think they came from the residential farm next door, but they stopped appearing abruptly  — just as suddenly as they had appeared. A friend keeps ducks, so we are well used to them. And with so much water around Romsey in the shape of the River Test and its associated tributaries and streams, you cannot go for  a riverside walk without encountering scores of them.  Take a few crumbs of a leftover loaf of bread with you, and they’ll not surprisingly appear everywhere.

But this family at a farmyard pond well away from regular passing traffic, ensures they should live in relative peace.