Tag: wildfowl

September 11th – I only went and forgot the camera again. This week can’t end quickly enough. Something is not functioning at all well.

On the way to work, in central Walsall the traffic felt risky, so I hopped on the canal and rode to Darlaston that way. On the way, I bumped into this family of swans.

This bunch are very attentive to humans – I suspect they get fed regularly. They were almost harassing me for food. The adults seem smaller than the Catshill brood, and there’s only three cygnets, but they’re lovely, healthy birds, and seem to have been ringed.

As soon as they realised I wasn’t going to produce bread, they went back to foraging in the weed and quickly drifted away. Cupboard love.

August 21st – For some reason, of late the Canada geese really have taken a shine to the marina in Silver Street, Brownhills.

Time was not so long ago you’d hardly ever see a goose on the cut, but this summer, they love it here – honking, preening and generally making a mess.

I’m fond of these large, truculent, much misunderstood birds – did you know there are twelve separate types of Canada Goose? – bu by heck, they make a mess.

It’ll be interesting to see if this is a passing attraction, or a longer habitation.

July 20th – A day coloured mainly by the sad news of the loss of a good man, but as I rode the canal mid-afternoon, taking it gentle, I reflected on life. I noted a family of 4 cygnets and mum – dad seems to be gone – doing well up in Walsall Wood. I think they’re from up the canal in Pelsall. They are healthy birds, clearly getting by just fine.

Further down the water at Catshill Junction, the swans from Catshill still numbered seven youngsters and two parents. Nature is cruel, but the cycle of life continues.

I’ve grown very attached to these birds, have many of the local residents. It’s odd that we take such beautiful but grumpy and obstreperous characters to our hearts, but we do.

We feel great sadness at the toll of nature, and predators. But that’s the roll of nature’s dice, and it was ever thus.

And life continues, as it always has.

May 26th – After not seeing them for two weeks, my swan magnet was finally on again as I headed up the canal at Brownhills. On this warm but generally overcast afternoon, it was clearly time for the family ablutions and the whole family of 2 adults and 8 cygnets were preening and bathing. They’ve approximately doubled in size since I last saw them, and look healthy and contented.

So pleased the couple finally got a brood after all these years.

Please though – if you see them, and want to feed them – give them seed, not bread. Bread has no nutritional value to wildfowl like swans and ducks, and can kill the little ones.

May 9th – Also introducing their offspring to the big, wide world were Birmingham’s Canada geese. I saw a couple of families on the canal in central Birmingham, each with 3 goslings. These charming yellow chicks are gorgeous, but fiercely guarded by mum and dad who hiss and head-bob at me while I take pictures.

Late spring – multiplication, it’s the name of the game. Delightful to witness.

April 6th – Bless her, she’s sitting again. For what is the third (or maybe fourth) year, the Catshill swan couple have made a nest in the remnants of the one from the previous year, and they appear to be sitting. 

In previous years, the labour has been fruitless; despite laying eggs, the couple have so far been cygnetless. 

I’ve felt sorry for them for too many seasons. Let’s hope they get it together this year, eh?

December 23rd – Here’s a warning: beware of muggers at Chasewater. These five geese – who seem like domestic escapees to me – have been living on the boating lake near the Innovation Centre since mid-summer. Ratty, noisy and aggressive, they make the Canada Geese around them look somewhat timid. Today, as I cycled past on my return, their bellies were clearly empty due to a lack of visitors. They hustled toward me, flapping and honking, and realising I had no food, set about pecking my feed and bike. Geese are mad and stupid – I always thought that if you could somehow cross one with a chicken the result would be truly psychotic.

September 17th – Ducks have a very relaxed attitude to mating. In short, if it looks like a duck, it’ll attempt to start a family with it. This results in a number of curious examples of interbreeding in the wildfowl frequenting the boating lake at Chasewater. On an evening spin around the park, I stopped to study the waterfowl and noted this curious bird. Is this a tufted duck cross? The tufted barnet is actually quite amusing…