nests...

As spring progresses more birds are laying and nesting. Here are some nests I have seen in the last few days. Most people think of nests as being fluffy and warm. Flamingos like them muddy and flat. Sparky led the team to help build up the muddy mesas like upside-down cupcakes for the Chilean flamingos.

Even the mate of cereopsis (Cape Barren goose) that bit me earlier in the week made a cozy nest decorated with down.

Below is an American black duck reluctantly showing Sparky her precious eggs.

This supreme nest is a swan's, of course. She built it on the bank of the canal that runs behind the Field fence; a nice quiet place to incubate her young. I see her in the distance every day when I wheel the feed cart through the gate into the Field. The other day I couldn't resist walking up quietly to take her portrait.

Sights and sounds

I have been paying attention to all the sights and  sounds that I will leave behind in two weeks: the squeak and clank of the gate into the Duckery; the nasal honk of the magpie goose and trumpeter swans in the Field; the Brent's ganders who have a honk-fest whenever someone approaches the breeding pen they share with two black-duck couples and a pair of hooded mergansers.

The Brent's ganders have gotten more aggressive in the last week now that their ladies are beginning to sit.Two or three come at me, bills open and their slender, pink tongues vibrating. When I get to the farthest food dish (nearest one nest)  they are so upset that they jab at my Wellies and nip at where my trousers tuck into my boots. Poor guys, as short as they are that's as high as they can reach, and despite their sincere efforts to protected their nests my greatest danger is not from their attacks, but from tripping when trying to avoid stepping on them!

What a contrast to the silent ashy-headed gander who looks up at me with concern and wonder when I go into the breeding pool that he shares with several other species. His lady has been sitting in a clump of sedge a few feet away for a few weeks now. I wonder what he makes of me towering over him.

The Abyssinian blue-winged geese chatter and posture as I pass or enter their pen, full of threats, heads lifted and chests puffed out. The Magellan gander does the same, protecting his mate who is laying. I hear his calls from the Left-hand Poly Tunnel when I come through the gate into the Field. He is such a proud papa with is chest puffed out and head thrown back as he proclaims his sovereignty.

I have seen the adolescent male Japanese crane dancing and playing with a short piece of straw. What elegant long legs and movements! Later I caught this reflect of his female consort drinking from the canal that runs through their pen.

So many sights and sounds that I may never see or hear again.  I am grateful to have this amazing opportunity to be here!

Nene goslings

I just can't stop taking pictures of these little guys. They are so cute and inquisitive!

A walk on the Cotswold Way

Dursley

I spent Easter morning taking a walk on the hills behind Dursley, a market town about 12 minutes drive away. It was a hazy day and a little cooler than it has been. The Cotswold Way is a National Trail, one of the long-distance trails in England. It is 102 miles long and ends south of Slimbridge in Bath. The highest elevation along the trail is 317 meters.

Imagine walking through the scene above listening to the church bells pealing from the town below.

Much of the route follows a golf course, sometimes along the edge, sometimes in the woods. There were dozens of boys from tweens on up in age playing golf, all neatly dressed in slacks and golf shirts or sweaters instead of swim trunks with surfboards under their arms!

This sign made me smile...

Even though the views were hazy there were ferns and flowers along the way to brighten my walk...

Ending with this wall of wisteria across the street from the car park.



The cape teal roundup

Today we moved some cape teal form the Field back into their area on the Grounds where there has been some work being done. The cape teal have been among my favorites for the last week; the gang of them always greeting me with a chorus of enthusiastic "tee hee!" when I climber over the fence into their pen.

Herding birds reminds me of herding sheep on a miniature scale. First we herded them into a corner, then Duane and Sparky caught them and handed them to us and Wayne put them in a crate.

Then they are loaded in a cart and driven to their enclosure.

Now they have lots of room. Can you see those little grey dots at the far end of the pond?

FYI...

koloa at Slimbridge

Some of you may be curious to see what the koloa look like at Slimbridge. At first, not knowing the other monochromatic ducks, it was hard to tell who was who. As I've tuned into the differences between species, and the more times I saw and heard these, I became more sure these were koloa. Sparky says, yes, they are the ones that hatched last year.

the cute and the ugly

I couldn't resist taking this shot of nene goslings coming to see what I was going to put in their coop.

Then there was the magpie goose who comes to honk at me when I wheel the feed cart into the Field. Yesterday he decided we're not friends and kept challenging me and nipped me once on the calf.

Guess who having dinner with some swan geese.

An alert nene family in their pen. When the goslings are big enough to be relatively safe from predators such as seagulls they'll go out to the grounds of the visitor's center.



A ride through the countryside

 It was a sunny day, so I hired a bike and took a ride north along the canal and then looped back along the Severn River. Thought you might enjoy a vicarious ride on a lovely English Sunday.

A section of public footpath.

 I shared one road with this woman riding horseback.

Along the Severn River

The Severn Estuary at low tide.....

is very wide.

From this angle it looks like they have a different way of getting to church.

A good day

This magpie goose decided to help himself.

 

I had a good day. Most of the days are varied, including feeding birds and assorted odds and ends. Today I fed ducks, geese and swans, helped clean a pool, hauled some turf, helped capture a red-crested pochard with string down its throat (it came out okay),  helped with catching some white-winged ducks that needed to be inoculated.

Feeding out is like being Santa Claus. Some of the birds get excited.

Above: Red-breasted goose  Below: Laysan Teal

A Cape Barren Goose wondering, "What are you doing in my territory?"

To fly or not to fly?

Walking around the grounds at the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, one sees swans, shelducks, mallards and tufted ducks coming and going; there's the impression that all the birds are free to come and go. The fences that contain the birds in their respective collections are barely two-feet tall, so inconspicuous that unless you're a toddler you are not even aware of them. But the majority of the birds are not free. The law requires they be contained either by netting overhead or rendered flightless. Its so subtle that I am sure that reality eludes most visitors.

If you look carefully you can see the longer primary feather on the left wing of this pinioned nene, but not the right.