That's nature for you.

Despite the bad weather we have luckily not been affected by the flooding that seems to have hit most of the country.  Very wet and muddy underfoot and the pig pen has turned into a complete mud bath and I have nearly lost a wellie on many occasion!
Sadly we now have a new problem with a sparrowhawk.  He has taken 3 of our 9 newly hatched ducklings from the pond. Our apricot call duck had successfully hatched the 9 eggs and we had kept her in an enclosed area for 10 days in order for the ducklings to get a bit bigger. We gave them access to the pond on Thursday and the sparrowhawk decided that our pond was the perfect place to take breakfast. We still have 6 ducklings which hopefully is a more managable number for Mrs Duck to look after.  We have also lost 'Reggie' who was one of the first 2 ducklings that Nige has successfully raised in an incubator and another of the ducks that were in the 2nd batch that Nige reared.  Both were taken on consecutive nights, disappeared without a trace. 'Ronnie' is quacking for her partner and it is very sad to see this. 
Bloomin' Mother Nature!