Tag: feet

#365daysofbiking Dem feet tho


July 5th – Riding through Aldridge on the canal down through Longwood and Park Hall, the water life was busy and the canal limpid and green.

What interested me most were the water birds: I was once again reminded how very odd swan feet are – by a cygnet in this case – it’s foot tucked up on it’s back in rest position. They odd leathery texture – and those claws!

There was a gorgeously aloof, elderly heron too – who was active and looked in good health, except when he walked off I noticed a curious growth on his foot.

It wasn’t affecting his walk at all and he didn’t seem to bother him at all. I found myself wondering if it was some kind of ganglion like humans get.

Strange.

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July 20th – I met the. Walsall Wood swans near Clayhanger bridge. Woody, their single cygnet this year, is growing and developing very well indeed, and the family are confident, wary of humans, but relaxed.

Woody posed happily for the camera, which was lovely.

But I still can’t get used to how alien swan feet are…

February 13th – On the canal near Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, a pair of swans feeding on canal-bottom greens, enjoying the company of each other and honking noisily.

They were far too busy browsing the algae to be disturbed by me, and they performed beautifully. You can say what you like, but a swan with only it’s arse sticking above the water is very amusing, and certainly not graceful. A lovely thing to watch. 

But those feet too, though. Swan feet are fascinating, and they look almost pre-historic.

June 27th – Near Catshill Junction, I watched momma coot feeding her chicks – presumably the second set of the year. She was diving, then returning to the surface and feeding the little ones from her beak. It was fascinating.

The chicks still look as Phil Griffin so memorably put it, like ‘badly knitted moorhens’, but they are very cute all the same.

It’s also interesting to be reminded of how strange adult coot feet really are. Curious birds, coots.

February 1st – This swan had me concerned for a bit. Sat on the frozen canal near james Bridge in Darlaston, as if he were trapped (I’m assuming it’s a he, how do you sex a swan?) I watched him for a while, fearing a stuck bird. As I started to whistle, he got to his feet, leaving small, melted imprints in the frozen canal surface. 
Birds seem able to be in contact with ice like this for indefinite periods, without their feet freezing because they have a very interesting feature in their blood circulation systems. At the top of their legs, the small amount of blood that flows to the legs and feet flows through a sort of ‘heat exchanger’ which removes heat from the outgoing blood and transfers it to the blood flowing back. Together with few nerves actually in the limbs, birds like these can stand for hours on ice with no ill effects and little energy consumption. All achieved through the magic of nature’s engineering hand, evolution. It surely is a wonder.