BIRD NEWS:527

It was not long before they swam further away and I wandered along. It was almost time for the next walk/talk I had booked in for - on 'Scalies & Scoters' with Warden Sam. Before she began, I took a photo or two of the birds that were the subject of the talk.

These were the scaly merganzers in the waterfall exhibit where the talk was held. The lecture informed us of the facts around the birth of young to the exhibited birds and how Arundel WWT was achieving compared to others around the country and world to ensure these species continue both in captivity and the wild.

As you can see from the info-board, they are a threatened species - but here is evidence of the local success story - a bunch of this years youngsters!

This pair of Nenes kept waddling about near me as I wandered back past the blacknecked swans to continue my day out. There are two ways to tell which is the male and which the female. Firstly, the female is slightly smaller than the male - and secondly, the female wears the metal tag on the LEFT leg, whereas the male wears his metal tag on the RIGHT.

I then decided to go on the boat trip. I have been several times before, but tend to go if I have enough time and the cue is small enough to allow me on the next ride if the boat is approaching or ready to go. On this occasion, a family trio and I were the sole passengers and had an enjoyable trip which must have taken longer than the usual 20 minutes as we saw quite a lot this time. Both the family and I had been on the boat trips before. As I got to the stage, preparing to climb aboard I spotted a mommy and cygnet swan.

This shot is one of the birds we noted on our trip - the gadwell. We also encountered the sound of a kingfisher, a kestrel in a willow tree, several dragonflies, overgrown sedge, a wooden barrier walkway...