BIRD NEWS:465

It was the big garden birdwatch weekend - and I had decided to do my count on the Sunday, seeing as I went to Arundel on the Saturday. It began rather poorly - with only a pair of blackbirds and a robin sighted in the first half hour, probably due to the strong winds. However, as the second half hour came along a few more birds appeared in my garden - a thrush, a wood pigeon, a magpie and 7 sparrows added to my count - finally worth counting.

I forgot this photo when loading my last trips worth from Arundel. But now onto the next trip - taken exactly one week later and with Liz for company, yet back to the same place - Arundel WWT - a firm fav with us both.

The eider ducks were fairly quiet today - hanging out in the rear of their long lake - but the Canada geese were as noisy as anything! Of course it did not take me that long to find one of these - a pigeon!

The first swans that we saw were the black-necked swans, lazily grazing the waters of their lake. We wandered into the woodland hide, being on an anti-clockwise trek as per usual for Liz. I found another pigeon - this time a wood pigeon.

This 'action shot' shows one wood pigeon munching seed carefree, whilst a second flaps in alarm as a rat lunges towards it, wanting the same food supply, with a water rail foraging in the rear. My final photo for today's post shows the wood pigeon strolling off to the background with the rat curling up near the log - possibly.

The thing is, not long afterwards another rat appeared and this second rat was gigantic compared to the smaller rodent. I am still undecided whether the smaller of the two is a baby rat or a mouse - though Liz is convinced its a baby rat.