Friday, April 5, 2019

BIRD NEWS:479


I was fixing my lunch when I noticed a flock of seagulls agitated by something - on closer inspection the reason there have not been very many birds in the yard lately may not just be due to furry pets of other people. There appears to be a bird of prey in the area...a red kite!


Yes, I realize it looks more like a tadpole, but I can assure you it is a red kite! My next excursion was short and solo. I hiked to Mewsbrook park in Rustington on the second Sunday of March. It was very windy, and I just felt like getting out without shopping - and Liz was busy.



The park has a few info boards about, as well as a lake with waterbirds, gardens with butterflies and pigeons and smaller birds, and a cafe. I used to come here as a child to the playpark area or to learn to row a boat on the lake with my great Aunt Cora. It has changed a lot since then - but has cheap coffee and is a place I can reach by foot.


I noticed a sport of floating hut on the lake - with an accumulation of twigs inside - and assume it is a nest. It seemed strange that the hut was floating about, drifting around the lake at random...



Further along, there was another one! This one had a moorhen sitting on the porch platform though!! I am assuming someone put them there for the birds to build nests in - but am not 100% sure, of course. It does not show up very well - but the wood pigeons have made a nest in the tree...


8 comments:

  1. Mewsbrook Park looks cool. I love those little floating houseboats for the birds. The one with the pinkish ball makes me think of "The Prisoner." :D

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  2. The old TV series with Patrick McGoohan. Remember how the giant ball would grab him when he tried to escape? :D

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  3. It was on in the late 60s, but it became kind of a cult thing in the 70s and 80s.

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  4. Kind of. It was kind of a surreal psychological spy thriller, though.

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