Worth Abbey
Quiet Garden

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Duck News

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Mallards 'at home', 27th February 2002

Pretty Woman

Nosey Male

Checking out the first Camellia bloom

Mallards pair off, 14th February 2002

In medieval Europe it was widely believed that birds on this day chose their mates. Chaucer, who died in 1400, refers to this belief in The Assembly of Fowls:

"For this was on Saint Valentine's Day
When ev'ry fowl cometh to choose her make (mate)."

a lovely couple

Considerable fighting is involved while there are 20 boys and only 9 girls

A proud drake!

A leading female with a deformed beak.

New Mallard Ducklings, 11th November 2001

A new family of six appeared on Remembrance Sunday.

But they disappeared after a couple of days. They either moved on or suffered from the frost.

Invasion of the Marauding Mallards, July 2001

A group of 39 ducklings all about two months old (with no parent birds) was found waddling down the middle of the main road past the Abbey. The Fagan and Doggett families, living beside the road, felt that this was too dangerous to ignore and determined to find a suitable home for them. The nearest pond was that in the Quiet Garden, to which they herded them.

Since then, the rapidly growing ducklings regularly go on an adventurous hunt for food around all the buildings of the Abbey - particularly outside the windows of the main kitchen.

Time for a snooze.

New Mallard Ducklings, 24th June 2001

Two new families have arrived on the pond.

This mother and three ducklings appeared during the week. They are not too frightened of human observers and roam the whole pond.

This mother and eleven (!) ducklings made a brief appearance on Sunday and had moved on to another pond on Monday.

While mother wasn't looking, the little ones came close.

The family of three moved on after at the end of July.

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Jesus said to them, "Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while." (Mark 6:31)