months by more than 20 ducks quacking in his garden.

And Weir ended up in Magistrates' Court yesterday after it was claimed he took no action to remove the noise or smell from the birds in his Happy Talk Lane garden in Paget.

He has been given 14 days to lower the numbers of ducks to a manageable level after Bermuda's Environmental Health Chief discovered 25 ducks, two geese and "several'' peacocks on his property.

Weir claims that the majority of the ducks are wild mallards from the mangrove swamp next to his home.

Chief Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Patrick Meyers, visited the property, in December, after complaints from neighbours about the nuisance from the ducks and the smell from faeces, which also caused a fly problem.

Mr. Meyers gave Weir an abatement notice to reduce the numbers of ducks and clean up the mess.

On a return visit in March he found that the notice had not been followed and Weir ended up in Magistrates' Court.

He said: "I got rid of most of the ducks. I advertised them in the newspaper and I gave a lot of them away.

"Now, at present, there are about 17 mallards that are loose. A lot of them live in the mangrove swamp, next to my house, at night, and they fly in to my garden. They are quite noisy.

"I managed to get rid of some of them but I suffer from a heart condition and I cannot catch them all. Up to yesterday there were 11. I am gradually getting them down.

"When I feed my ducks and geese they tend to come down for the food and fly away when you get near to them.

"Mallards breed very fast and to be honest I want to get rid of them because they are a pain in the neck.'' Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis said: "You have a situation that attracts them to your property because their parents were brought up there.

"If you cannot remove the ducks yourself you are going to have to employ someone to do it for you.'' Weir said that he should be able to bring the duck population down to a manageable level over the next fortnight because it was the mating season and they become easier to catch.