'Here Come the Girls!’

The Cross-In-Hand Amenities Society is proud to announce that it has purchased three female ducks to join Desmond in the pond! He seems delighted to have some company, and they splashed about in the water before settling down on the island. We've christened them 'Deirdre', 'Doris', and 'Demelza'!

It will take a few days for the newcomers to get accustomed to their new life, so we ask dog owners to ensure that they keep their pets out of the water if the ducks are nearby. As our new ducks have not been used to foraging for themselves we will be setting up a rota of volunteers to feed them food specially formulated for ducks for a couple of weeks.

Please DO NOT feed them bread! This is actually bad for the birds and the associated malnutrition can lead to beak deformities, 'angel wing', and problems with their down. If you would like to feed them, please give them brown rice, sunflower seeds, oats, sweetcorn, mealworms or halved grapes, as these are of far greater nutritional value to birds.

If you can are able to help with the feeding please email us on cihamsoc@gmail.com. Thanks to Kim Summerfield who sourced and collected the ducks, and helped introduce them to the pond.