BIRD NEWS:335

Back home, and we have a new Bubster-Pidge on the scene - and sill. This one is still unafraid of humans - well, of me at least. It does not fly away when I go to the window - yet. Here it is sitting in the tree staring at me...

April drew to a close, and on the penultimate day I took another excursion. Regular readers will know instantly where I went when spotting this first photo...

Yes, back to Arundel. Liz gave me an annual subscription to the WWT reserve for my 50th birthday last year and the year is nearly over. I thought it fitting to attend on my 51st birthday! Although, she has persuaded me to join up beyond the initial gift year - and I am somewhat hooked on following the life of the various swans here...

Every time I visit, I learn something new, I see something new, and enjoy my trip. I did not previously know this information about mallards, for example. This next picture shows something similar to what was experienced at the start of my membership last year - goose and goslings near the boat trip entrance seats - keeping an eye on us human strangers!

BIRD NEWS:334

indeed, in this picture it appears mommy coot is teaching baby coot how to eat without being fed and the baby does look very interested in the lesson! My final stop for this brief 1-2 hour trip to Arundel was the cafe, where I had coffee and lunched. The eider ducks seemed to be congregating noisily around the cafe area to my pleasure.

Not having human companions with me on this trip, it was nice to hang with the eiders...

I then made my way onwards, already having stopped at Bognor and Littlehampton before Arundel - but wanting to slip in Rustington on my way home. I did in fact manage the lot in an excursion of 8 hours and 15-20 minutes.

On my way home, I strolled along the avenue to town to catch the bus and spotted an entire family of pheasants. As there are 3 gray and one brown, I assume the brown is the female and gray are the young.

One last shot taken back in the reserve that for some reason did not come in order numerically when i loaded the photo - of the trumpeter swan.

BIRD NEWS:333 and information on the jay

It seemed to be a struggle to keep up with mother moorhen, for these fluffy chicks. I turned the corner and took a few shots of the harlequin duck - posing for the camera on this occasion - along with the info board.

I got a couple of close ups before moving along - and what should I find but more babies! This time a coot and youngster. Parent coot seemed more interested in eating, though.

Baby coot wanted munchies too - and from the last photo I will share with you today, it looks like mommy coot is about to teach baby coot how to find its own food!

Finally - HERE  is some info about the jay - we have one that sometimes comes to eat peanuts in our yard.

BIRD NEWS:332

I moved along from the swans and walked through the reedbed walkway and found a chaffinch nibbling seed on the stump at the outdoor woodland area.

I did not find much to photograph there or in the woodland hide this trip, but I did spot a family of moorhens very near the hide as I left it. The babies were so cute and fluffy with teeny tiny wings - and I remember last year, in May when I first joined and came regularly, there were baby moorhens around then too.

The young just seemed to waddle-flap their way along after mommy bird, paddling through the muddy bits and splashing thru the waters.

They fluffed up when they swam and looked so tiny....

BIRD NEWS:331

My next stop on the Easter Saturday Arundel trip looked out over an island with a pair of shelducks resting upon it. I was almost sure of identification, as I had seen shelducks just the week before when visiting Pulbourough Brooks with Liz and John - but I did double check the ID board to make sure I was right - which I was.

I next wandered past the Trumpeter swans enclosure. I wonder if they will make a nest and have another brood of young this year? Their juveniles vanished between my last two trips - whether they were set free, taken to another reserve, or released in the wild, I have yet to learn.

Despite the ducks and staff only notice, the swans and geese were quite at home in the field by the lake, munching grass for lunch. When Liz recently asked me if I was planning to renew my annual membership (that she had gifted to me for my 50th birthday in 2016), it was the swans that made me agree that it was likely I would do so. I was planning to join for one year every 2-3 years and take breaks - but the swans are like a TV soapie - and I can't wait for the next installment - of natural reality!

BIRD NEWS:330

the gosling and the mallard do not seem to know what to make of one another!! Well, The Bewick Swans were gobbling grub below water when I first got around to their new enclosure - the other side of the path to their former pen.

It popped out soon after - but turned away! I did manage to get a couple of better shots of their faces however, before leaving them to stroll onwards - one actually swam up near to me as I was about to leave..

I walked along passing the wildlife garden, where the now familiar goldfinches habitat lies. I took just a couple of shots - as we sometimes have these in our own yard, although not as often as they used to come since the council axed next doors holly tree.

BIRD NEWS:329

Rook or carrion crow, they liked nuts. This made them more likely to be crow than rook, unlike their congregation and nests, which made them more likely to be rook than crow.

You would think with so many pictures, I might have been able to tell - but...this book stated this, and that book stated that. Whatever I read or viewed seemed to lead to one or other - but it evened out to 50-50. They remain a mystery - feathered thighs, flat foreheads, baggy feathered bellies, ARGHHHH! maybe I should just call them crooks!!

Well, here you can see I left Bognor and moved on to Arundel - familiar territory. I spotted mute swans somewhere in the complex, but did not photograph them - preferring to focus on the Bewick and Trumpeter species while the black-necked swans were in hiding.

But first there was a nest of goslings with parent birds hanging about guardfully. Not sure if they were more concerned about me staring at them from the pathway or the ducks that had decided to wander nearby, though.