catalyst wrote:ducks main food seems to slugs, bugs, etc...
What a pity I can't send you my slugs and snails!

Kill two birds with one stone...so to speak! I get rid of the blighters, the cutesome little ducklings live. When I squish them here nothing much seems to eat them - they just lie around drying up. Obviously the birds prefer their food to wriggle on its way down.
Speaking of dead baby birds....I had a blackbird pair nesting in a honeysuckle shrub this year

I was very proud that they'd chosen my garden. Apparently baby blackbirds leave the nest before they can fly, and spend about a week pottering amongst the undergrowth whilst the parents feed them. WELL dodgy idea in my books!

I had at least 4 chicks in the nest. On Thursday I realised that the parents were no longer going to the nest every 15 mins. I checked around the garden and found 3 live chicks and one dead one

The next day there was only one live chick.

Friday was really really wet with heavy rain. The one remaining chick was sheltering under some bags of concrete I have on the patio ready to erect the pergola. Yesterday I found this chick dead.

The dead chicks are now buried in the veggie bed where they're feeding the pumpkin. I'd rather have live blackbirds though.
Hope you get at least one duckling to mature!
Alcina