Nature Red in Beak and Webby Foot, or, the Cannibal Ducks of Cádiz

We went to what was until the following happened my favourite park in Cádiz. It has a pleasant man-made pond and lots of exotic ducks.

We were watching the ducks ducking around, and then Marian pointed at this one below and said, 'what's it eating? What's it eating?'

It had what looked like a couple of dessert spoons sticking out either side of its bill. Is it a frog? I hope it's a frog.

No, it was one of these pleasant little fluffy children. With a couple of strenuous peristaltic jerks of its neck, Saturn finished eating his child and continued to stomp around the park, looking as innocent as all get-go.

And we left, just as another adult started enquiring into the nutritional value of its own offspring.

There was a scandal about it in the papers. Apparently lots of gaditano children have been traumatised by this and similar sights over the past few weeks: there isn't a professional duck-wrangler in residence in the park and so unpleasantnesses happen.