Have a word with those ducks

      I pushed the two terriers out for their morning pee the other morning and heard a duck quacking. Nothing unusual in that but the quacking didn't get further away or closer as it would if the bird was in flight.
      I looked up and there they were, a male and female on top of the ridge-tiles on the house next door. Why? Or is the lock-down beginning to affect them? It's not really typical  really duck behaviour and they're not the most elegant of birds for a high level perch. Since they were socially distanced maybe the male had been out of order, a bit too amorous perhaps, it being springtime, or maybe he'd come back late last night.
      It's been the week of the birds really, the swallows and house martins turned up on April 21, that's the same day for three years running that they've returned from their African sojourn. I heard the first cuckoo on the 22 April too.
      Spring is sprung.