For the chop

Went for my usual Saturday morning run today - I thought it was slightly cooler at first, but it ended up just as sticky as ever. Some tree felling had been happening in the park; always seems very sad but I hope some good use is made of the logs.

The duckling saga continues. When I returned to the pond later there only seemed to be one little duckling with its mother, so it was looking like we had lost two overnight!  However, a woman came over to us and said that there had been an altercation with the other family of ducks and one wee duckling had been separated from its mother and was sheltering at the side. Mother duck seemed to be unaware of this and the lady couldn’t get the baby duck back to the mother. After about half an hour though of her enticing the mother back with food and me trying to guide the baby round the edge with the help of a stick, we eventually reunited the family. So now down to two ducklings. I’m not holding out much hope for this lot though; the mother duck is either very stupid or inexperienced or it is possibly a bit sick.
The extras show mother duck with single duckling and the much more robust and territorial family of four.  A much better picture of the “rescued” duckling can be seen here: https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2865638450009211476