Tag: behaviour

#365daysofbiking Hair and gone

March 23rd – Meanwhile, over with the red deer at Chasewater, the seasonal moult has started, and the ladies who looked so healthy and fine a week ago now look like threadbare old rugs. They are also covered in dried mud, which they roll in to try and liberate the irritating cold weather coat.

It’s natural of course, to lose the winter coat, and the scruffiness will soon pass; but my favourite ladies always look so grim at this time of year.

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#365daysofbiking Duck tales:

September 21st – The humble mallard duck doesn’t get much love, but I’ve always held that, like magpies, if you study them in any more than the most cursory fashion, they’re absolutely beautiful. The iridescent, shimmering greens of the males are lovely enough, but also the females are very much more than drab brown; if you study them, they have the most gorgeous blue and white flashes on their wings.

But better than appearance is their personality and social behaviour – here on the overflow in Brownhills near Silver Street, the ducks were in parliament doing what ducks do – sat in running water, dozing, chattering and generally being the best ducks they can ever be.

Such contented creatures.

May 5th – This one has me a bit puzzled, and makes me realise how little I know about swan behaviour. This lone swan is on the decaying nest left in the disused basin by Cashmores works just off the Walsall Canal at Pleck. This nest successfully incubated and hatched at least four cygnets last season to a pair who I think are now nesting up at Bentley Bridge. The nest here is very secure from most predators – well out on the water, and humans can’t get there as it’s almost totally fenced off. 

The one thing it’s not secure from is herons, and I’m fairly sure a heron took a couple of newly hatched cygnets here last year, which may explain the pair not using this site again.

Occasionally, a single swan sits this rotting nest. I have no idea why. She – I’m assuming it’s a she – was there this evening, and seemed quite content, but there was no sign of a partner at all, and no sign of nest maintenance.

I do wonder what’s going on here.

December 27th – The birdlife at Chasewater carries on with little regard to the weather. The robins, blackbirds and tits flitted around, hunting for food, and on the lake, the waterfowl – from coots and grebes to swans – loafed and preened as usual.

I must read more about swans and their social behaviour. I note adults and cygnets from last summer still hang around together, though in much looser, informal-seeming groups. A few days ago I saw all seven of the Catshill brood on the lake by the north end of the dam together with mum and dad; but often, I just see one adult and on cygnet, or groups of solo cygnets.

It’s almost like they’re still family, but go their own ways and meet up later. They really are most fascinating birds, and I really should learn more about their habits.