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After the successful hatching of 13 ducklings on Sunday 12th June 2002, for the third year, a second female had chosen our garden to nest in the adjacent bush. We have been expecting the ducklings to hatch any day for the past three days as the male was hanging around closer to the nest and for longer.
Sadly, at around one o’clock, a badger came out of nowhere and made a savage attack on the nest, killing the shelduck female and eating all the eggs.
The shelduck male is still coming and has no idea that his mate is dead.
We never expected to see a badger in our garden.
Strange and fascinating, unpredictable nature!Has any member of the CBC seen badgers in their Blakeney garden, so close to the marshes? This was a first for us in 39 years of residency in our village.
You may see a video of the carnage with the link below:
Thank you.
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A fascinating video of a natural behaviour that goes on all the time, we just rarely see it. Thank you for sharing it. Sad for the Shelduck but they are long-lived birds and he’ll no doubt find another mate. Good for the badger, though, as this shows she’s fit and able to care for her own young. Badger footprints are not uncommon along coastal footpaths so I’m not surprised they are in Blakeney.
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Thank you so much, Kath & Mick Claydon, for the quick reply and the enlightening about badgers roaming along our coast. It was a shock for us as we never had one visiting our garden before. Amongst many birds, we also have muntjacs almost daily, many rabbits, once a polecat, hedgehogs, grey squirrels, stoats (seen rarely) and cats.
The shelduck male was here again this morning. Hopefully, he’ll soon realise that he has to look for another mate and maybe bring her back here next year… or not!
The video of the successful release of the 13 ducklings of the first female on 12th June is also on my YouTube channel. We assume that it is the same female that already nested succesfully here in 2020 and 2021. https://youtu.be/VGUrht-VjxI
Best regards
Frederic
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