Fields of Gold

I spent the whole day gardening and took a car load of garden waste to the tip. Luckily it was late night opening and I still had time to walk the dogs before it got too dark. 

As we set off down the lane, I thought that there was a pile of horse poo, so I was getting ready to keep a close eye on the dogs as they are partial to a nibble or two! Suddenly the pile moved, so I grabbed the dogs and put them on their leads as I couldn't make out what it was at first. The dogs were pulling like mad but I managed to get a couple of poor quality pictures. 

As the pile waddled ahead, I realised that it was a duck with 5 ducklings. It's about a mile down to the nearest water and off they went, very slowly making their way in that direction. I then had a dilemma...if I let my dogs off there would be mayhem. I could change direction and take the dogs elsewhere but I was worried that another dog walker would come down the lane and find the ducklings. They couldn't fly and the smallest was finding it difficult to keep up. 

I made the decision to follow them at a very safe distance, so that they wouldn't feel under pressure to keep walking. I spotted a dog walker behind me but I think he saw my deerhounds and veered off into the fields. 

It must have taken an hour to walk that mile to the river but just before they reached the water, the adult duck flew off over the hedge and left the ducklings in the path! I crept very slowly toward them, pulling the dogs as close to my side as I could and as we approached them, the tiny, fluffy chicks jumped into the undergrowth. The parent must have sensed danger and used all her skills to divert the threat away from those babies. Brodie, Fionne and I got quickly away and into the fields and hopefully the family were reunited a few minutes later. 

I have no idea what the family of ducks were but I'd love to know if anyone can help identify them. I've put one of the images as an Extra but it's not clear. As the adult flew off, I noticed a band of white along the edge of the wing feathers. He/she looked about the size of a moorhen. 

This blip was taken about 15 minutes later, from across the other side of the field. The setting sun was lighting up these grasses, so I crouched down to avoid getting too much sun in the shot.