A rare treat from the Falkland Islands...
After discovering that the Ashy-headed geese eggs are in fact infertile for the third year in a row, I have become pretty dejected about them. Beautiful as they are I cannot help but feel a bit of resentment towards a male who thinks a little dance is in fact full mating!
All has been solved however through a recent acquisition of ours. This beautiful Greater Magellan pair were given to the trust at the end of April through kind donation by Mo and Ron Warren. Their aggressive attitude was threatening the existing domestic birds at home, and their need for a separate pen ruining the garden. After an internal battle the naughty pair were tearfully sent to Slimbridge; where, in just 10 days, they began (for the first time ever) to lay!
We were taken completely by surprise, and an 
open fronted nestbox full of straw was quickly thrust into their pen. Very quickly it began to fill. The Ashy heads had stopped at 5, but Mrs.Magellan kept on going until there were 8! The male is a wonderful dad and spends much of his time mouthing off at birds a good 100yards away from the nest through a double fence. Every feed time she gets off the nest for a feed, drink, poo and display. She honks so loud you can hear her from the Duckery! The sound is as loud as a foghorn, but vibrates within the throat giving a very eerie backdrop to Duckery life.
Not knowing their personalities I left it a full 10 days before their first disturbance in case she proved flighty. This friday as she was off the nest I snuck over and candled the eggs, quickly discovering a few cracks in the shells. Despite a mound of straw she had dug down trying to make a scrape and the eggs had as a result been slightly crushed. A bit of nail varnish and some warm compost later, her nest was as good as new. The most wonderful thing of all however is that all 8 of them are fertile!
You can never count your chickens as so many things can go wrong; from weather, to infection, to interferance to illness. Nonetheless I am very excited that there may be some stripy little goslings in the Duckery this year!
Great thanks to Mo and Ron!
18/05/11 Mo warren: Thanks Phoebe for such a wonderful blog about my geese and their eggs. Thanks to all in the hatchery who look after them so well. Keep up the good work and hope that we get a good survival rate once the eggs hatch. Cant wait to see them but 'needs must when the devil drives' as they say!
