Our next trip for Liz & I was to Peppering Farm - alas, my photos did not come out well. I got couple of shots of a tree, rather than any sighting of the birds in the tree. We did see goldfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, wood pigeon, robin, crow, blackbird, and long tailed tit though - as well as the bird that eluded the camera. Possibly a linnet or redstart.
We moved on to WWT Arundel, where I managed to get a hoard of piccies, starting with the pelicans.
I
also took a video HERE as one of the two females on the right kept
picking up a small stone and tossing it up and down their inner
beak...which we found fascinating. I assume it helps clean the inner beak, or dislodge caught food particles - but it may be just a game.
Passing the pelicans, entering the aviary, we found the avocet, redshank, harlequin ducks, scoter, merganzer, longtailed duck, and spectacled eider.
This redshank seemed to be shyly hoping it was not seen....
The camera caught it though!
This eider seemed to wonder if it was allowed to have its picture taken or not - it kept swimming by sideways, then turning to look....
The pelican behavior with the stones is fascinating. I think birds do swallow stones to aid in digestion, so maybe it has something to do with that.
ReplyDeletei am thinking its to do with digestion - but they seemed to play with them rather than swallow them. so its more like cleaning their teeth/oral area, than using them for stomach/bowel help
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