Homeward Boud

It's time to pack my bag and head home. I turned my wellie boots in and said my goodbyes yesterday. I knew my mind was turning towards home last week when I noted "I Want To Go Back To My Little Grass  Shack" playing on my mental jukebox.

I leave a landscape that has had the driest spring in recent memory and return to my beloved valley which has received over six inches of rain in the last two weeks.

Spring in England has ripened towards summer and the trees that were only hinting at green are now fluttering with leaves.

The nene goslings that fit so easily in my hand six weeks ago

are now going through that awkward--I would almost say ugly--adolescent transition from being covered in fluffy down to their adult plumage.

The pens that everyone worked to hard to re-turf , so the ducklings and goslings could have a fresh new start have gone from bare, scraped earth

to plush new grass with their first inhabitants

It has been a wonderful satisfying experience. Thanks for sharing it with me vicariously.

Aloha oe,

Kathy

One last bike ride

I took a bike ride south four miles along along the Gloucester--Sharpness canal to Sharpness, where the canal meets the Severn River. It was a sunny, windy Sunday and sections of the canal were a sea of flower petals. Mallard hens were out with their ducklings.

There were people out picnicking, fishing, walking and kayaking along the canal. In the village of Purton I stopped to look around and saw this beautiful church, Saint John the Evangelist.

On a bend in the river there are the hulls of several old ships that were purposefully wrecked along the river bank to help prevent erosion of the riverbank.

I passed the abutments for an old railroad bridge made out of stone blocks. They looked like ancient turrets emerging from the trees.

The canal ends of the Port of Sharpness. The difference between the canal and river level at low tide is astonishing. One of the reasons the Severn estuary supports such huge numbers of wintering birds is that it has the second greatest tidal range in the world, second to the Bay of  Fundy. At low tide this exposes extensive areas of tidal flats for birds to feed on.



note the level of the canal even with the top of the fence line

To the south is the bridge that spans the estuary separating England from Wales.

From the Port of Sharpness I looped around and headed back.

Whistling ducks hatching

One of the things I learned in ornithology that astounded me is that ducklings talk to each other when they are still in the egg. They start breathing a day or two before they hatch, when they break through the membrane into the airspace at the blunt end of the egg (next time you eat a hard-boiled egg you can see the airspace and membrane as you peel the egg). Then they can can vocalize.

Our ornithology textbook described how slower developing chicks can communicate with the more developed ones so they can synchronize their hatching out. I find that so amazing! Phoebe took a video of Cuban whistling ducks in the process of hatching and you can hear them peeping to each other. She posted it to her blog on the WWT website:
http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/slimbridge/phoebes-duck-diary/chatty-cubans-during-hatch

Before I ever met a whistling duck I fell in love with them for their alert, erect posture, bright disposition , whistling call, gregarious nature and their endearing habit of preening each other. There are several types of whistling ducks here at Slimbridge. Their enthusiastic-sounding calls always make be smile. We have only one lone whistling duck that I know of on Kauai. I like to visit him/her when I have time driving to Lihue and think what a sad lot it is to be the only one of your species around.

I hope you enjoy Phoebe's video!

This 'n that

Not much remarkable to report.  I did get a chance to peek at two freshly hatched ducklings yesterday...

and met my first Laysan ducklings, which were brought in yesterday.

The nene goslings continue to grow and are getting gangly. I love the legs-out posture of the closest one in this pile of goslings!