BIRD NEWS:413

I will start today as I left off my last post - with a nesting swan. This is the female Bewick swan sitting on nest. Last year they had 2 young, which have since vanished, and this year - well, they have a nest!

The male was swimming about the pond nearby. I could not see the Trumpeter swans when I first arrived at their enclosure - but soon after spotted one swimming in the distance.

They were both in view when I came out of the nearby hide, gliding about nestlessly. They nested without young last year, had 5 young that vanished before the next mating season the year before - but it looks like they are not as yet bothered, unlike the mute and Bewick swans.

I enclose a shot of this info board depicting a reed warbler - as I saw one quite clearly thru the bins, but - alas - it was too obscured/distant to be able to photograph. I can guarantee I spotted at least 2 other warblers on the walkway along to the reedbed hide and in the corner turning onto the boardwalk - but I was not able to identify them. I also saw what looked like a green tinged chiffchaff...

Back to identifiable ducks - the eiders were hanging out on the cafe-side lake with a bunch of other birds again. My final shot from this excursion was of a wood pigeon in a tree.

Back home and the nesting blackbirds have made me unable to trim the hedge out front, 1-3 gold finches seem to devour as much seed as the local sparrows, and the jackdaw and blackbirds have all learned to stand on the iron ring to peck the suet balls on my feeder as one prepares to demonstrate below.