then there were four

Day 67. Tuesday 7th September 2010

This afternoon, four of the ducks flew off. Two came back, leaving Petal and Rosemary staying away on a duck pond in a neighbour's garden about 70 yards away.

Violet missed her sisters and was making a strange throaty croaking noise. It appeared, when all the others flew off, that she had purposely stayed behind with Tom, who isn't able to fly.

This is the state of Tom's wing feathers, and the likely reason why he can't fly. He spends a lot of time trying to get those feathers right, but without success.