One of the pleasures of owning a Lodge set on 50 acres is the menagerie of animals one can own. The greatest pleasure has come from our birds especially the black swans. They are a year old now and although we clipped their wings the one we thought to be female was learning to fly. We named them Ken and Hilary although we are not sure whether we have Hilary and Ken or Hilary and Hilary or Ken and Ken. The thought was that Hilary would not fly away and leave Ken on his own and it certainly was wonderful to see her flying around the garden so effortlessly. Ken would squawk and try to follow and couldn?t understand why he would land in a heap. His wing hadn?t grown the way Hilary?s had When they first tried to fly they would crab across the lawn because we had only clipped one wing. I would cringe at the thought of these majestic birds looking so awkward and felt reluctant to clip her wing again.
On the 9th of October we were walking new guests through the Lodge onto the lawn to show them our view when Hilary flew by on one of her short flights followed by Ken squawking and trying to keep up along the ground. My heart came into my mouth when she didn?t land as usual but banked to the left and gained height to pass over the trees and started to circle and gain height above us. Maybe she?s just going for an aerial view and then she will come back, but she headed south and didn?t return.
Our 4 domestic ducks can?t fly but sometimes I wish they would and leave for ever. They can be so destructive when they get into the upper part of our beautiful water feature. I?ve tried throwing tennis balls at them, using a high powered hose, rubber snakes and painted ugly faces on plywood cutouts but they always come back. We decided to move them to one of our dams in the valley below, where they could share the paddock with our steers, Bill and Ben. The morning after releasing them onto the dam I returned to see how they were faring, but there was no sign of them. What had I done? I wasn?t very happy with the ducks but I didn?t wish them dead! We searched everywhere but there were no signs of foul play. Several times during the day I would drive down to the dam to see if they had returned but alas no. As the sun began to set I was feeling quite forlorn and returned to the top to lock the rest of our birds away for the night and there sitting outside their night pen was our 4 pesky ducks waiting for me to let them in. When I think of their journey that had taken them all day through a wooded area of thick undergrowth for 700 metres and a climb of 80 metres one can?t help but do a few calculations and realize if we were doing the same journey it would be equivalent to walking for 5 kilometres through a paddock of sugar cane, wearing flippers.
After their epic journey I haven?t the heart to return them to the dam below, so I suppose its back to tennis balls and rubber snakes.
If the ducks can do it, surely, Hilary might one day make the journey home.
