Rats

The rats got at the great tits - the tile was moved slightly this morning and all the baby birds have gone. In the last year rats have killed and half eaten a whole litter of my baby rabbits and all my ducklings. We've only got two ducks and I wanted some khaki campbells and indian runners, so we found a place in Exeter and called in on the way back from Cornwall. The ducklings had hatched that morning, they sat on Logan's lap all the way home. They were so tame, they stayed in the conservatory with a light bulb for heat for a week then we put them out on the lawn in a pen each day for weeks until they were big enough to go in a pen at night. The pen was Pip-proof (Pip is our Jack Russell / Paterdale cross) so I thought nothing would get them - but the rats did - they tunnelled under the shed part of the pen, ate two and left the rest dead - it was terribly upsetting.

Where do the rats come from? The local ratman from the council keeps coming along and putting poison down and we keep finding dead rats every so often. I keep all food in sealed containers - so where do they come from and why do they keep coming?

Well maybe next year the great tits will use the tit box made for them which would be much more sensible. The robin didn't have much more sense - we put a robin box, made specially for him, in the barn but he had to make his nest in a roll of canvas, hanging precariously from the barn roof! Happily all the baby robins survived and have now flown the nest.

Forecast is good for the weekend.