I NOTICE that a new information board has appeared by the river in Waitrose car park in Marlborough.

It is giving us a lecture on feeding the ducks. It starts: “The ducks do not need feeding; bread has few nutrients to offer ducks.”

I would like to ask this question.

How is it that when we fed the ducks the wrong food, ie white bread, they thrived? When we obeyed the order not to feed them, the ducks just disappeared.

For decades in Marlborough there were so many ducks and ducklings we had to stop the traffic for them, They nested in our gardens and in numerous families in the river.

There were always groups of people on the river bank admiring and enjoying them.

Young toddlers in pushchairs were taken down to see the ducks for the first time.

Today if they were taken down they would have to take an iPad with them and to get on the the internet to see what a duckling looked like because there aren’t any to see.

The river is strangely silent. It is gushing along as usual but the whole river area in the town is quieter and emptier. Few people bother to stop and look at it, and there is rarely a child anywhere near it.

Perhaps ARK or others could start planning for next year and find ways of reintroducing the ducks to the river.

We are all missing this annual spectacle. It was one of the many pleasures of Marlborough.

JANE CONDON, Kennet Mews, Marlborough