Seven eggs and counting

What a difference some sunshine makes.  It's as though Nature is making up for lost time by going into overdrive.  The magnolia tree, which was still in bud five days ago is almost in full bloom today and my garden is suddenly filled with colour.  In April last year temperatures soared and most of Britain was officially in drought.  The following day the heavens opened and soon we were on flood alert. After a very long, bleak, cold winter it is so wonderful to enjoy some warmth and sunshine again and to watch the garden being dramatically transformed by colourful, scented plants. Judging by the number of visiting bumble bees and butterflies I'm not the only one to be grateful for the late arrival of Spring.

 A burst of spring colour in the garden

The female mallard nesting in our duck box now has seven eggs, possibly eight after this morning's visit to the nest.  She is being attacked every day inside the box by a rival drake and it's hard to believe that no eggs have been broken.  The drake takes advantage of the fact that she is, literally, a sitting duck and mates with her inside the box.  I've been doing my best to drive him off if I catch him and yesterday I managed to get hold of him and that dampened his ardour for a couple of hours but her returned later on and attacked her again.

Between attacks yesterday a pair of mandarins flew over to her nest box and stood on the plank as if guarding her from the drake.  Of course it was probably just a coincidence but they did prevent the drake from approaching the mallard for about an hour.

Later on, following a further attempt by the drake to mate with our mallard, she fled the nest and he returned with his own partner. I was amazed to watch as she went inside the nest and starting covering up her rival's eggs.  Perhaps it's instinctive?  She's been checking out both nest boxes for several weeks now which is probably one reason as to why her drake is attacking our mallard, other than the obvious one!  We're surprised our girl hasn't given up on her nest but she returns after each attack, sits for a while and then covers up the eggs.

Mandarin ducks on guard!