A mystery

I was walking on our bit of moorland and spotted this - a blue plastic box almost completely buried.

So I investigated with a spade . Next to it is an empty can of WD40 . It had rusted through , so that may give an indication of how long its been there.

 And the box came out . An empty ( well, its empty in 2014, whther or nor it was empty when it went in is anybody's guess)  coolbox, without its lid buried upside down, with the handle up.

the mystery of the vanishing ducks - a witness

a neighbour has spoken to us . To paraphrase

I was awake at 6 am and went outside.

 I heard a dreadful, commotion  of the ducks quacking wildly.

I looked down the hill and I saw a flurry of feathers in the air.

 Sounds farly conclusive to me. I think we now have some ex-ducks. I'll leave it a few days and then post an  in memoriam mesage. And i'll find some photos of the deceased

The mystery of the vanishing ducks - a suspect

The European Otter (Lutra lutra) eat fish and anything else that moves  near water. This can inlcude water birds. The burn is an otter super-highway.

So its likely that the pet ducks  were taken by the otter.  So the next project is to lock the ducks up at night. Last time we tried that, they were too stupid to cotton on . So we will have to try again.  Perhaps the ducks would have received a Darwin Award , were animals eligible.

The burn is very nice, but.........................