BIRD NEWS:424

My next excursion was to WWT Arundel with Liz in the middle of July. On arrival, we discovered we were 3-4 minutes late for the start of a wildflower talk/walk - so dashed off to join in. After we had spent around an hour learning about wetland wild flowers, we started to look at the birds. Above are a pair of ducks - the one on the left I think is a whistling duck - but I am not 100% certain as I did not check the info boards.

We wandered around the meadow maze, and I managed to catch a couple of shots of the Bewick swans - with cygnets. On my last trip, I thought I spotted 2 - but on this trip, it appears they had four! In the second shot, we see a parent Bewick swan 'winging' at a staff worker that came a little too close for the swan's comfort, protecting its young. Apparently only certain staff members are favored, whereas others are warned with loud calls and wing-antics as in this case.

My final shot from this trip is of the black-necked swans, now resident on the former Trumpeter swan lake. I did not get many photos this trip, as we were doing the wildflower talk and I had company, along with the fact that there were not as many birds as usual since they have taken down the feeders in the woodland hide and the eiders were in hiding.

My next trip was solo. I went to Lancing and walked along past Widewater Lagoon to buy paint in Shoreham. I only took a couple of pictures, as there was not much activity - a trio of egrets and a cygnet with parent swans.

Locally - there is not much going on. There seems to be a scarcity of birdlife in the yard. I have a robin, blackbird and wood pigeon who visit the windowsill between 4-30 - 6am, and then....nothing! i have barely needed to put out any food at all. Liz is noticing the same effect on her street - so taking down her feeders for a month or two. Where can they all have gone to????????