August 19 – Some folk, of course, don’t even notice the rain and carry on regardless. After all, when you live on the water, what difference does a drop more make?
This cygnet – one of the Watermead family, still apparently in rude health – was just getting some greens as I splashed past near Silver Street.
I love the way these shoots are constantly cropped by the swans – it’s like their own little grazing patch.
July 13th – I haven’t seen these guys for a while , and my goodness, they’ve grown! These are the Watermead swan family from Brownhills, and they came over to see if I had any food as I passed Clayhanger Bridge.
I was glad to see they still number five, and interesting to see the very beginnings of adult plumage forming on the growing cygnets.
Here’s to another successful year!
July 1st – The Pleck swans were cool in the heat this morning, although dad didn’t seem to be around. The youngsters are growing at a rate now.
Dem feet tho. That doesn’t look comfortable, but it must be. Always amused by it.
June 6th – I see around the ICC and NIA we now have these stencils on the towpaths. A great idea. I’m all for sharing.
Shame the geese can’t read, though. It takes two…
June 1st – It may have been the first day of the meteorological summer, but it was cold, wet and blustery. Again.
Cheering me up in the gloom, though: Clayhanger’s latest family: seven Canada goose goslings, clearly very recently hatched. When I spotted them, they were scrambling to hop out of the overflow they’d been paddling in.
Mum and dad were very attentive and impressive parents, it has to be said.
May 24th – The Watermead swan family in Brownhills are doing just fine, after the loss of a single cygnet soon after hatching. The remaining six are looking healthy and growing well when I saw them in the evening. Mum and dad are clearly protective, but aren’t shy to show off their charges, either!
Meanwhile, on the canal towards Aldridge, a small but perfectly formed mallard mum with four cute little ducklings.
A joy to see all these young birds at the moment.
May 18th – Ah, so commence the annual cygnet search. On the way to work in heavy rain and also on the way back, I looked over to the nest of the Pleck swans, and noted they weren’t on the nest. I couldn’t spot them between there and Darlaston either, so they’re probably roaming for food now. I’m concerned about them since the heron incident, but I’m sure they will be OK somewhere. Just a question of when I’ll spot them.
In the mean time, I had to content myself with the goslings that seem so numerous this year.
I love spring.
May 15th – Into Birmingham on an afternoon off, and I headed from home down through Sutton Park and the Plants Brook Valley. Hitting the canal at Tyburn, I was struck by the huge number of Canada Gees families with newly hatched young. So cute, it’s hard to imagine these gold and grey balls of fluff turn into the hectoring, hissing adults they do.
They are such excellent birds.
May 8th – On the canal at Walsall Wood in steady rain, an interesting group of mallard crossbreed ducks, which I think are fed and loosely tended by a household near the water. I notice there’s mallard in there, of course, but also white ducks and the one with the grey/blue bill suggests a ruddy duck is somewhere in that one’s genes.
That’s the thing about ducks, they’ll freely interbreed…
April 3rd – This is a crime warning.
The canal towpaths and waterside footpaths are, as is usual at this time of year, inhabited by attackers, muggers and aggressive beggars. Hormonally aggressive, the Canada geese and swans really aren’t messing around at the moment and will go after anything – walkers, cyclists, dogs.
This pair at Walsall Wood have been hanging about all week, and I now carry tidbits for the male to stop him pecking my ankles as I pass.
I’ll be glad when mating is over and they go back to their usual grumpy but relatively nervous state.
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