Wild about wildfowl - Busbridge Lakes in Surrey are a haven for one of the biggest collections in the country. Ron Toft has been to visit the swans, water ducks, geese and cranes.

When Fleur Douetil and her husband bought the 40 acre Busbridge Lakes estate near Godalming, Surrey, in 1966 as a family home, they knew that they would have to do a lot of had work to the property and grounds. The house itself, which had been used as a weekend cottage, was rather neglected, according to Mrs Douetil, there was no mains and the estate's three lakes were "very very overgrown". The Douetils from Guildford had spent three years looking for a suitable property set in its own grounds. "We needed more space for our growing family and it had to have water, because my husband is mad about water."

Not long after moving to Busbridge Lakes, Mrs Douetil decided to buy a few ducks, "I started with Carolina Wood Ducks and a few pairs of other species, but they weren't pinioned, so they flew away. I had always been interested in everything to do with nature and became fascinated by wild-fowl, so gradually built up a collection of birds, buying a pair of this and a pair of that when family finances permitted."

Wildfowl wonder

Thirty-three years later, Mrs Douetil is the proud owner of one of the biggest wildfowl collections in the country. Swans, geese, dabbling ducks, diving ducks and cranes, as well as ornamental pheasants, fancy pigeons, bantams and aviary birds - Busbridge Lakes has them all, Between 2,000 and 3,000 birds of more than 100 species now live on the tranquil estate which has been lovingly restored by the Douetils to its former glory.

One of the many early problems Mrs Douetil faced was fox predation. "Because most of our birds are exotics they have to be pinioned to prevent them from escaping into the wild. That makes them especially vulnerable to predators, of which there are many, so I had to ensure they were as safe as possible. "We fenced the grounds bit by bit and then, about ten years, enclosed twenty of the forty acres."

Although foxes are no longer a problem, other predators still manage to find a way in. "We had a stoat the other day which killed two birds, we are infested with crows which take eggs, and we also get the occasional mink."

D-i-y hatching

Geese and swans are allowed to hatch their own eggs, but most ducks' eggs are hand-reared in the estate's duckery, not just because ducks are particularly vulnerable to predators, but because "a lot are very bad parents." Mrs Douetil readily admits she knew nothing about wildfowl or any other birds when she started her collection. "I simply read about them, badgered breeders for information and asked hundreds of questions. Most of what I know was self-taught."

The first birds bred at Busbridge Lakes were "the easier, commoner species," such as Carolina Wood Ducks, Mandarins and Red-Crested Pochards, "But very early on I became hooked on sawbills, such as Red-Breasted Mergansers and Goosanders. They were my big desire and we are very successful in breeding them."

Mrs Douetil, who is a council member of The British Waterfowl Association and Aviornis and three years ago won the international Breeders' Award for outstanding breeding achievements of waterfowl, is always modifying her breeding methods. "A technique that works with one species doesn't necessarily work with another. One year everything seems to go well, then the following year you get a clutch from the same birds and they don't seem to rear so successfully."

During the past three decades, Mrs Douetil has bought only birds she believed would do well at Busbridge Lakes and which she could afford. "Money was not freely available to buy here, there and everywhere. Through hard work I accumulated the money to buy the species I wanted. I would like, for example, to have King Elders, but I simply can't afford them at the moment."

Clear water conditions

Mrs Douetil told me that to rear really good sea ducks, one needs very cold, clear, vegetation-free water. "Although our water, which comes from a spring, is of a very high quality, the temperature of it rises quite a bit in the summer and it contains many leaves from the trees which surround the lakes." Despite this, some sea ducks such as Goldeneye, Common Eider, Mergansers and Velvet Scoter, have done particularly well at Busbridge. Oust as we thought our scoters were going to breed, we lost them to enteritis. I may well try again, along with one of the other Eiders."

Most ducks, geese and swans raised at Busbridge are sold. "Last year we bred 800 wildfowl and the year before 1,100, greatly to the credit of manager Robin Ramus and his team. This year we've cut right back because we haven't sold all of last year's stock and are limited for space. What's the point of breeding birds that you don't want and can't sell?"

Mrs Douetil finds markets for her birds largely through word-of-mouth contacts. Among her customers are St James' and Regent's Parks, "quite a lot of leisure parks" and private collectors. Bosom birds go abroad and last year we even sold some to Buckingham Palace!Ó

"Transport is a big problem. Amtrak used to deliver all our birds. They collected about four o'clock in the afternoon and delivered by nine the following morning. It worked brilliantly and we never lost a single bird. Three years ago Amtrak was stopped from carrying birds by EU regulations. Now our birds have to be collected or delivered personally, neither of which is very satisfactory. As a result, our trade has been curtailed quite a lot."

Consideration for the birds

The Douetils open their estate to individual members of the public for less than 30 days annually. "That's partly because visitors and breeding birds don't go hand-in-hand and partly because Busbridge Lakes is our home and we want our privacy most of the time. We also want the grounds to look as natural as possible. If we were open to the public six months a year, we would have to put down tarmac paths and do all sorts of other things."

So why open to the public at all? "It would be a pity to have a collection like this and not show it off at all. And the income helps to pay the bills." Schools, clubs and other private groups are welcome to visit at any time of the year subject to prior arrangement.

There are three lakes the artificial Canal Lake and the natural Middle and Bottom lakes. "When we first came here in the 60s, there were a lot of huge pike, so we had the lakes netted by the Godalming Angling Society which removed these fish and released them into other lakes."

According to Busbridge Lakes' official guide, a 37.5lb pike was found choking on a 7lb carp in 1837, a 341b pike was caught in the 1930s and a 4.25lb perch landed in 1928. There are now a lot of big carp in the lakes, as well as roach, rudd and tench.

Storm damage

"We still have some very, very mature frees, although many superb specimens were destroyed or damaged in the great storms of 1987 and 1990, including two magnificent chestnuts." Believed to have been planted in 1660, Busbridge Lakes' Restoration-period horse chestnuts "may well be not only the oldest horse chestnuts in England but also the tallest, towering well over 31m/100ft above the orchard."

Among the other noteworthy species are a cedar of Lebanon, a giant sequolia adjacent to the house, a Persian ironwood, a black acacia, a monkey puzzle tree, two tulip trees, yew, box, lime, sweet chestnut and different kinds of beech and cypress. "Almost rivalling the famous horse chestnuts are the great plane trees that rise above the Bottom and Canal Lakes."

Flowering plants include bluebells, primroses, violets, cowslips, wild daffodils, buddleia, berberis, heathers and some water lilies. Aquatic plants are few and far between, because the wildfowl eat them. "The lakes had some lovely lilies, but black swans and water lilies don't mix. The worst culprits, we've discovered, are the eiders. They destroy more lilies than any other of our species. We used to blame it on the wild Canada geese that fly in, but it wasn't them at all. Eiders think the lilies are kelp." The insect fauna is rich and diverse and includes many, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles, bees, wasps, dragonflies, and damselflies.

When Mrs Douetil sought marketing advice for the estate from the tourist board the year before last, "they said they thought Busbridge Lakes was one of the nicest places in south-east England." It's not hard to see why...

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