A duck lost, a duck found, a duck lost

A few days back the guinea fowl were shouting at the tops of their voices. They are great guards, a little over enthusiastic at times. But this seemed serious. Their attention seemed to be on the somewhat overgrown soft fruit bushes.
I did investigate but couldn't find anything.

But that night the two old ducks, the black one and the white one, did not go away at night. I couldn't see them or hear them anywhere.
In the morning the white one appeared by her house, but there was not a sign of the black one, who has been quite weak recently and walks with a limp and a droopy wing.
No sign the next day either and I gave up hope.

There was more tragedy too. When I put the twenty young meat ducks away I counted them through the gate as best as I could. 1, 2, 3....19. 1, 2, 3....19. Four times I reached 19.  So I headed back into the veg plot where the sad sight of a dead white duck soon confronted me. It was just squashed up against the fence. No signs of being attacked by anything. I could only guess that it had basically been trampled by the others. So sad but completely unavoidable.

However, this tale has a surprise happier ending.
For while we were showing our friend around, the one who is looking after the smallholding for us when we go away, the black duck just appeared out of nowhere!

ed We are back from our week away now. The black duck and the white duck are no longer using their house at night and we don't really know where they are spending all day. The white duck has been seen twice and the black duck not at all. She is possibly sitting on eggs, but if she is they will not be fertile.