BIRD NEWS:405

Did readers of the previous post guess correctly? Those big white blobs in the above photo are the birds I spotted...yes, SWANS! I have not seen any flying around our locality before. I wonder if they are last years Bewick swan babies or the year before Trumpeter swans from the WWT at Arundel? Or maybe they are just mute swans from Littlehampton, Shoreham, or...

This cute close up snap of a tiny blackbird shows that yet again, a bird fell out the nest in our garden. This little fellow was far too small to fly, but might have scrambled or flapped - then fallen. I was in and out of the poly tunnel today and heard a commotion from the blackbirds - thinking there might be magpies about I investigated and saw nothing. The third time I looked I saw this chap on the ground, staring up at me...

I knew the parents knew me well enough to know I wouldn't harm their kid - so scooped it up into a large flower pot and placed the flower pot into the tree, under the nest...

My next excursion was to Arundel WWT, taken the first weekend in April. As I left the bus stop, to ramble along the avenue beside the moat to the reserve, I spotted a couple of pigeons on a roof top. A short way along the tree-lined avenue I caught sight of what I assumed were long tailed tits - I took a couple of shots to blow up on the computer at home to make sure, not having time to unpack my noccies - yes, longtailed tits

On this trip, as usual, Arundel had various information boards dotted about the pathways for adults to learn from - as well as a duck spotting game spread across the site for kids. The current boards mostly refer to the differing nests birds make. I took photos of 4-5 of the boards - here is the first.