An old recording from late last year, finally uploaded. This beauty did scare my Peking Leuka and I do believe she hangs around still. My Magpies and Ravens keep her in check, but I think its the rodents she is actually after, which I don’t mind. As long as she doesn’t swoop my Duckos/again…

Leuka is 100% recovered now. She was egg bound but after seeing the Hawk the next day there is a possibility of the Hawk either swooping or have tried to pick Leuka up – hence how I found Leuka…

The Grey Goshawk
Genus – Accipiter
species – novaehollandiae
Is a medium sized raptor that inhabits a variety of wet forest types in Australia, New Guinea and its neighboring islands. In Australia, its range extends form Tasmania, through south-eastern Australia, along the east coast and across the north of Australia to the Kimberley area in the north-west (Blakers et al. 1984). This species exists in two distinct and readily recognizable forms; grey morph and white morph (often referred to as White Goshawk). Most birds in Victoria are of the white morph, with just a few greys being seen and no known resident populations of grey birds (Loyn pers. comm.). The grey morph predominates in jungle and subtropical rainforest while the white morph prevails in eucalypt forests.

Link to her recovery bath https://youtu.be/JUBrL61l8iA

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Late December I came out to see Leuka spread winged on the ground, obviously shaken and all the other ducks were honking. From her state I surmised some degree of egg binding which can be caused by a variety of things including getting scared and or calcium deficiency in which I was leaning towards.

Moral of the story is to know your birds, they all have different personalities and knowing them helps you to act promptly when you notice out of character behaviors/noises/movements.

Egg binding can kill your duck but also attempting anything like removal when your not trained to also can. Binding can sometimes pass on its own but if your duck cannot pass their bowels properly or not drinking/eating then you need to take your duck to an Avian vet for surgical removal which is not as bad as it sounds, but they are skilled on the removal without breaking the egg inside which can cause death to the duck. Another things Avian vets do is to inject calcium to force the egg out naturally along. In case of surgery, antibiotics are usually prescribed to rule out secondary blood poisoning.

She recovered more and more each day and I kept her inside isolated especially from my two surfing boys, with me in the office and gave her a warm bath twice daily and monitored her eating drinking, bowel movements closely. Giving her fresh water by cupped hand and feeding predominantly greens/dandelions in a bowl of water. She still got her nutritional yeast soaked noodles though (We know we are in big trouble if she turns those down).
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Recorded in the Midsomers Litha 2023 Aus.

Duckies by name and Breed/coloring:
Leuka ‘Pure Peking’ White with the more yellow beak compared to Sunna and half the size of the white boy Frigg
Bella ‘Silver Appleyard’ The large light grey with big caboose and belly
Fenr ‘Caluga’ Black with Purple, Blue Green sheen Duck
Sigrid ‘Rouen’ Raisin toast colored Duck with a black patch on her beak
Sunna ‘Peking’ White colored Duck (has splayed legs and some development issues from when I got her still)
Freya ‘Rouen cross Peking’ Ginger colored Duck
Fawn ‘Rouen cross Peking’ Green headed Drake
Frigg ‘Rouen cross Peking’ all White colored with yellow tinge Drake

For those who just like ducks I have made a playlist which includes my feathered Brood here – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl3xuBinTIQkIciiB4iPe2oibWOG-cftU

By Ravenmor Fox
Horticulturist
Druir and Wic of the old ways
Priestess to the Morgan of old.

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