Tag: noisy

#365daysofbiking Water carry on


March 24th – As I get older and wiser I realise that mallard ducks are just loud, shouty idiots with very unpalatable mating habits.

Here on the canal at Walsall Wood on my way to work, two males were competitively battling each other to mate with a female.

They were fighting for some time and the noise and disruption was considerable. Interesting that a coot seemed to be refereeing.

We are now under some kind of lockdown – I can only got to work if I can’t from home, or if I am a ‘key worker’; I can have some exercise every day and got to the shops. Most everything else is restricted or banned.

Unless you’re a duck. Then any old shit goes.

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October 22nd – I’d been to see an old mate who’s not been so well of late, and came back along the canal past the new pond at Clayhanger, where a large, grumbling flock of Canada geese seem to have lately taken residence.

Oddly, they aren’t aggressive, but aren’t scared of me either, and I have to stop and actively shoo them out of the way, which they’ll com-operate with grudgingly.

They’re puzzling me a bit as all the other local geese are positively sociopathic malcontents, honking and flapping at anything that approaches.

People give these geese a hard time, but they are actually quite fascinating birds.

October 27th – Ah, Mr. Calico… we meet again. This male cat (he is male, and unneutered by the looks) was hunting mallard on the canal in Pleck as I spun through on my way to work. I’ve seen him a few times, always in exactly the same spot. He talks to me and curses me for disturbing his sport (although the ducks were honking at him and causing a drama long before I got close).

He always moves high up on the embankment from where he can look down on me in safety, then meows long wailing cries, always seeming like curses.

Somebody loves that lad. He’s in fine fettle. And good voice.