Called up early evening the other day and was pleasantly surprised to see a field full of Corvids. The field in question had been ploughed and the furrows must have been over 300 m.m. deep. Hence the field looked like a bubbling sea. While the lightly ploughed field last week had attracted Gulls and Woodpigeon this held large numbers of Jackdaws, Crows and my favourites Rooks. As the furrows were so deep the birds would completely disappear and reappear from view as they hopped, skipped and jumped around, as they do. This reminded me of watching rafts of birds on a heavy sea as the waves rise and fall doing there disappearing acts.
.....................meanwhile on Dukes Pond things hadn't worked out as i expected. The Canada Geese do have young and the single Swan has turned out to be as aggressive as ever. I hope he doesn't drive them off this time. I had stories of the pair on Swallow Pond drowning the young of Mallards, Coots, Moorhen and Canadas from one of the regulars.
....a nice quiet swim around the pond turns into....
....attack of the killer Swan
....look at the concern in the Canada's eye.
John,
ReplyDeletecan you not sleep, posted at 0139hrs then no doubt your off somewhere early this morning.
Does the swan chase the young or does it just go for the adults?
Also havent done anything to the Blog but the "Comment as:" box is working now on your Blog anyway.
John
Good morning John,
ReplyDeleteJust returned from 4 and a half cracking hours up at Killy. Went to bed 6 last night and got up about 1 this morning then back to bed at 3 then up again at 4.15 and out at 5.30a.m.
The Swan chased everything off the water and as the goslings were struggling to get out both parents jumped back in the water and went for the Swan before the Swan took control of the situation and the pursuit started. The last 2 years a pair of Canadas with young appeared at Dukes Pond only to be hounded away by a Swan with cygnets. The Swan would climb out the water and pursue the whole family relentlessly. This went on for a couple of weeks then eventually the Canada family disappeared.
By the way, there are Humbugs up at Killy. The pair on the smaller lake have young! Also while i was there i was treat to the sight of 12-14 (i couldn't count them as they were moving too fast)Swifts who appeared from knowhere whizzed about for 5 mins. or so, then disappeared. Class
John
John,
ReplyDeleteAm starting to worry about all this activity going on when I'm making zzzzz's
Dick
Which activity??
ReplyDeleteThe birding or the Police helicopter.
John
John, what are Humbugs apart from the hard boiled variety?
ReplyDelete