May 5th – This is always a nice first to chalk up for the year – the first duck and coot chicks have hatched. On the Walsall Canal at Pleck, proud mum and dad with large clutch of nine ducklings, and these three coots were spotted in Goscote, the rest of the family in overhanging bushes. I still think coot chicks have cute in shedloads.
Still no swan or Canada geese hatchlings yet.
May 13th – The Walsall Canal swans at Pleck had hatchlings when I passed them midday; I was very pleased to count four, and I suspected she was hatching more. The cob patrolled on the open water, and the scene was tranquil.
I returned the same way that evening on my way home, to find a drama unfolding. An elderly heron was perched on the rear rail, his beady eye making unfailing eye contact with the cob, who was perched on the nest with his mate. There was clearly deadlock – the heron obviously had spotted an opportunity, but the swans were having none of it.
In a couple of days when grown, they’ll be safe from the herons and other predators, but it’ll be a tense few days for mum and dad as they guard their precious charges.
Nature, red in tooth and claw.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 