OneAndOneIs2

We went to a nearby lake to throw stale bread at the ducks the other day.

They didn't seem to mind. Strange creatures.

There were quite a few ducks, and swans too, with ickle baby versions. And this suddenly made me question something.

When you see nature shows about birds like starlings, they show you parent birds working flat-out round the clock to raise one, or maybe two, chicks. A big struggle.

And yet ducks and other waterbirds seem to have half a dozen or so offspring every year, and never seem all that busy - they just bob around on the water and eat soggy bread.

So, okay, good on them, they have lots of offspring and not too much effort. But that begs the question: What happens to them? If ever pair of ducks raises six chicks a year, that should lead to a HUGE population of ducks.

Yet the world doesn't seem over-run by them. So they must be getting killed off. But try as we might, we couldn't think of a convincing predator. Few fish are big enough to take a duck. Birds of prey might manage it, but they generally seem reluctant to divebomb birds floating on the water's surface. Land-based predators don't seem likely to make much of a dent in numbers.

So there's all these birds being born, no obvious reason why they don't survive, and yet the population seems to remain stable. The only conclusion I can come to is that there are a vast number of ducks hiding somewhere and plotting world domination.

Start stocking up on stale bread, folks...