Sandhurst Brawn (10 April 2011, contributed by Mike Smart)
In the aftrenoon, I heard a Mallard duck making low encouraging quacking noises at the base of a pollarded willow. It had been pollarded fairly recently and was perhaps eight feet high, with a few new shoots poking up. One after another about half a dozen tiny ducklings jumped/fell/glided to the ground from the bole of the tree. Never seen this before! Maybe that’s why you don’t find so many nests of Mallard (and other ducks?) on the ground?