Freckled ducks!
My current favourites (I know it changes!) are these wonderful Freckled duck.
Foiled last year by the bizarre, dedicated and intrepid efforts of a broody Maccoa, Mrs. Freck finally got to incubate her own eggs! In 2010 her previous clutch was rolled painstakingly across 4 metres of grass into the nest of a naughty Maccoa . When the Maccoa had laid infertile eggs, these were removed to allow her to lay a second time. Loathe to give up her nest, she stole the contents of another!
If I were being honest, this year they were a actually a bit of a surprise? With 675 birds on the go, it was hard to keep track come July time... There are two pairs of Freck in our breeding aviaries, and one poor female is preferred and as such bullied and mated with far more than the other one. The second female is in fact possibly a bit too butch to breed, and hangs around with the boys like one of the lads. Nevertheless, strength prevailed. Mrs Freck clearly managed to get just enough free time to nest-build and lay her eggs.
They are one of the species for which WWT has gained historical reknown; rearing the first ever successful brood in Europe, and as such are considered tough to manage. To my mind however, they are just cheeky little birds that keep you on your toes.
They are an Aussie species, and as such never really lay in the heart of the breeding season. Given the choice, a Freck will sit down any time between February to March and July to September. To them, a bit of rain bodes well as a sign of growth and plenty; they have not clicked that in the UK in signifies "yuck."
Once you know their timing, you can ensure that the perfect nesting areas are available during the desired period, and that there are no competing species vying for elbow room. This clutch were parent incubated right up until the point of internal pip, but normally their large white eggs are easily incubated under a broody hen or in a mid-humidity incubator.
The fluffy little chaps hatched out 4 weeks ago now, and were excellent fun. My boss Sparky is forever adopting the PANIC approach to rearing Frecks. Early rearing does involve some worry...
To teach them to feed, the food bowl needs to be within 2 or 3 centimetres of the water bowl. Their favoured way to feed is to spit water into the edge of the food bowl, making a smooth paste or porridge. Like little kids making mud pies, they get it everywhere!
The two photos above show a distinct 'before and after' feeding, i.e. with or without mohicans! This manifests itself visibly in the food bowl, with a long sausage shaped trench of wet mush around the edges. In this way it can only ever be a simple fact whether they have learnt to feed or not, unlike species which can innocuously pick a few dry crumbs off the top..
The PANIC comes into play in the placement of the food bowl. You can easily imagine that the safest way to breed birds is the cleanest so as to avoid bacterial growth, but opinions continuously differ on the placement of the bowl. After a few days when the babes have proved that they know where to find food, I am happy to move the food bowl back from the water bowl to encourage a bit more exercise and a bit less mess.
The worry here is whether they will stop feeding as a result. If gone un-noticed this could cause them to starve themselves and thus can create a major dip in growth. Unreliable feeding can in time cause potential growth defects and problems such as angel-wing. Healthy Freck have quite a hair-do, but an un-healthy Freck gets soaked with water, faeces and food. The PANIC then involves taking the time to move the bowl around the coop in such a way as you can minimise mess but maximise feeding.
