General Chat

....a mother duck waddled across our back garden followed by five ducklings. We are at least half a mile from the nearest open water. I fear for their safety with the number of urban foxes around here.

She must have a nest near you, Bob - and so far it's been safe from foxes :-D

When we kept ducks (Khaki Campbells), they had a huge run (with bath) surrounded by 8ft fencing. They were let out in the garden every day, to supplement their food with natural stuff, and locked up at night.
Eggs were collected daily.
Peggy (the frmale) decided she preferred the woods next to the garden to either the garden or the safety of the run, and used to disappear for a month or so - initially we thought she had been killed, so got another female for our male - then Peggy would reappear with at least 14 ducklings in tow :-S

We knew there were foxes around - you can't mistake the smell of a male fox :-P
but for 3 years, Peggy regularly disappeared and came back with too many ducklings :-0

I have to admit, we ended up with a 'core' of 6 females to our 1 (rescued) drake, and ended up eating 'spare' ducklings, once they'd grown proper feathers.
But none of our ducks were ever eaten by a four legged fox - not even Cassy - a female with a withered leg.
When we moved nearer to the village, the ducks were kept in a run, with a lower fence, and a 'two legged' fox stole a few.
We knew this, as Cassy was never taken!!

I stroked the pet shops Duck today
He/she is called Pip and lovely
Pip had been in the shop for years
Though he/she does go home with the owner on a night :-D :-D