May 18th – On the way home, I checked out the Watermead swan family, still with 9 healthy cygnets, enjoying the sun near the canal overflow opposite Silver Street.
They all seem in good health, and the parents are very attentive. I think they’re too large now to be of interest to the local herons, but I hope mum and dad are vigilant for brer fox.
We usually lose one or two – let’s hope we don’t this year. Such a fine family.
May 9th – It’s a waiting game, still; I was hoping we might see some cygnets hatch over the weekend, but it seems not. The swans at Bentley Bridge wait patiently, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the odd bloke with the bike…
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.
May 3rd – The swans who’ve nested on the Walsall Canal at Bentley Bridge seem very house proud. The sitting partner today was busily removing debris and weaving new reeds into their huge nest, while their mate was finding suitable pieces from further afield to improve the construction.
I love how busy they are, and how they work in careful partnership. Magical.
April 17th – At Bishton, near Rugeley, on the Trent and Mersey Canal, someone has a very good excuse not to cut the lawn.
Imagine being able to look out of your window and see a swan nest only a few feet away!
April 13th – I spotted her on the way home, something I don’t think I’ve seen before, a Canada goose nest. From my vantage point on the opposite side of the canal, I couldn’t decide at the time if she was sitting a nest, or just resting. It’s clearly the former, looking at the material underneath her.
This nest is right on the canalside behind the factories on Maybrook Road, between Walsall Wood and Brownhills. My goodness, she’s vulnerable to foxes there.
Lovely to see, though. Hope she’ll be OK.
April 12th – On the Walsall Canal where the Anson Brach used to spur off between Bentley Bridge and Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, the swans who I think nested in the abandoned basin last year are nesting anew.
Sadly, the nest isn’t well protected this year and I think an enterprising fox or heron – who fish here regularly – may end up with cygnet tea.
That’s if the phantom bread-flinger does’t chock the wee ones – sadly, the message that bread isn’t good for waterfowl doesn’t seem to be reaching all quarters. I know these folk mean well, but it’s not good for them.
Please, if you feed them, seed or greens instead.
April 11th – I spotted him near the Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, perched in a tree. I haven’t seen many herons of late, so it was nice to see this neat, healthy looking specimen looking for a meal. This was very near where the swans are currently nesting and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was hoping to bag a cygnet for lunch.
As is usual with these wonderful birds, I scared him and he flew 30 metres or so down the canal, landing well away from me.
I love these wonderful, eccentric-seeming birds.
April 4th – An odd day – heavy showers in the morning interspersed with bright, warm sunny periods, and a nightmare, torrential-rain soaked ride home. At lunchtime on an errand from work into Walsall, I have no idea what the pigeon was thinking, but it seemed happy. Walsall dripped, sparkled and glistened, and the swans at Bentley Bridge didn’t seem bothered.
The homeward trip was fun, but very wet. Flash floods hit the main roads and drains blew their covers. It was warm though, so not too bad.
I guess this are April showers, then…
April 2nd – Elsewhere around Clayhanger and Brownhills on this golden afternoon, momma swan was still giving me the evil eye from her nest on the canalside by the Watermead estate, but she did pause to stand and turn her eggs. The crested grebe still seems happy pottering on the canal near Walsall Wood, and continuing the mad, unsynchronised spring Spanish bluebells are flowering in a hedgerow at Clayhanger Common.
Spring is well underway, it’s warming up at last and everything is starting. Fantastic!
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 