The Story of Ailsa the Aylesbury Duck

Meet Ailsa the Aylesbury Duck and the family album

The other day I introduced you to some domestic ducks gone wild down on the canal. This photo journal is of one Aylesbury duck I call Ailsa distinguishable by her deformed beak. Here she is to tell her own story.

Yoohooo - I'm Ailsa - I'm a duck! Now I know what you are thinking, you think ducks don't talk but you're wrong - it's just we choose not to - well not until we have something to say. Anyway, I'm not your average duck. For one thing I have a frilly beak, not too common you know. My brother's tease me, say they can see my teeth but I just say, "at least have teeth!"

Anyway, I was born in June down by the canal and I have two brothers and a sister. We are a mixed race family you know. My Mum is a Blue Swedish duck, she's a pretty blue/black duck with a cute white bib. When the sun shine she shimmers. You can see her picture over there -->. My Dad is a big white Aylesbury Duck, he's all white. He and his brother are TweedleDum and TweedleDee and they have been living here for a while. Anyway, Mum says we are a mixed bunch - you see there is me with the frilly beak, Mum says not to worry 'bout it. Then there is Splodge, he's, well splodgy. He's a Blue Swedish Duck too but he's not like Mum, he's white with sort of splashes of blue and green and stuff. Then there is Marly, she is a giant mallard, well not really, she's something French but I keep forgetting what, but she looks like one of these wee mallard ducks that live around here, just bigger - much bigger. Mum's says them French folk bred them fer the table but when I asked her what that was she told me to hush up. Then there is Whitey, he's a white Aylesbury Duck like Dad and me but he doesn't have any frills on his beak.

'Mum, Dad and the little uns'
Blue Swedish Duck, Aylesbury Duck and two ducklings

When we got big, about six weeks old or so, Mum disappeared and when she came back she had two little ducklings with her, she said they're our brothers too, but they are awfully little and they don't play with us. That's them down there with our Mum and Dad.

We all live on a canal, oh I said that already. We live beside the big boats. There a yard and a shed where they fix boats and a big trampolene thingy little hu-muns play on. We're not supposed to be there but we can get underneath it which is nice when the sun is too hot. There's some chicken live there too and they're always nicking our seeds. Mind you they say it is their seed. They can't swim the silly things, I think they are jealous. One day the big one, Little Un, got out onto the boat next door but she still couldn't swim.

'Me and my mate, Juvey Moorhen'
Aylesbury duck and juvenile moorhen.

Sometimes we all go down the canal a bit to the big green field. The grass there is really tasty and there's lots of other birds to play with. My favourite is the Micklethwaite Moorhens. Mr and Mrs Moorhen have seven, count em, seven youngsters. That's one of them,Juvey Moorhen, in the picture with me. They have great big feet and they can run real fast - a lot faster than me anyway. I've even seen Mr Moorhen climb a fence, that was way cool.

We're wild ducks but we're real clever like. We've trained hu-mans and hu-womans to bring us food. They think it is all their idea but really we got them fooled. I like the soft white stuff best, the hu-muns call it bread. I don't like it when it has green bits on it. That's mould Mum says and if we eat it we could get sick. She says we should tell the hu-mums about that cos they don't know any better.

Well, it's time I was snuggling up fer the night. I know we fight a lot, but there is nothing like snuggling up with your brothers and sisters when it's time for bed. I hope you liked seeing my family album. Nighty, night, don't let the bugs bite.

yours faithfully,

Ailsa

Aylebury duck with deformed beak

Aylebury duck with deformed beak

'Mum' a Blue Swedish Duck

'Marley' the Rouen Duck

'Splodge' the Blue Swedish Duck

Ducks 'Me and my brothers and siste

Ailsa Aylebury duck with deformed beak

A word about the pictures

All the images used on this page are by the author of the story - AnnMackieMiller and are copyright to the photographer dated 2011. They may not be copied or reproduced. Higher resolution copies can be bought for use on blogs and website.

The photographs were taken with a Nikon D90