Birdwatching

Anonymouse · 03-05-2011, 16:04

I've sort of taken this up, unintentionally - while getting some exercise on my bike I recently discovered a small lodge not too far from where I used to live; I decided to stop for a bit and enjoy the scenery, as it's a pretty little place IMO (litter notwithstanding). There are three species of waterfowl there: your standard mallard duck (three, I think), a pair of Canada geese (who are nesting at the moment - yay!) and a kind of duck (I think) I've never seen before, four of them. They're small as ducks go, all black except for a white beak and a white patch on the forehead. One mated pair have six little chicks (until two days ago, they had seven; I don't know what happened to the poor little thing...); the chicks are more a dark grey, with red feathers on their faces. Yes, red. Does anyone have any idea what they might be?

One day I got a little too close to them and one of the pair (I can't tell the male & female apart) took off across the water, with four of the chicks in tow - leaving the other three behind! I could immediately see why - the harsh logic of survival and natural selection dictates that it's better to lose half the chicks to a predator than all of them - but imagine my horror at the thought of being indirectly responsible for the loss of three-sevenths of their family!

After agonising over what the hell I was going to do, if indeed there was anything I could (or even should) do, I decided to go elsewhere for a while, then return to a different spot an hour later and see if the parents would remember and go back for the three wayward chicks.

Thankfully they did, just as I arrived, though one of them briefly looked as though it hadn't learned its lesson and started off in a completely different direction...male, probably; males of any species are often badly-behaved when young.

Having reswallowed my heart in relief, I wandered over to where one of the geese was sitting on the bank. Something about her posture suggested s/he was egg-sitting, and sure enough there were signs of down beneath him/her (can't tell the difference with geese, either - spot the expert!

). Later s/he went for a swim, revealing five good-sized eggs. I'm planning to go back a few times a week as long as the good weather holds out, partly for the exercise and partly to see and photograph the goslings when they hatch.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one keeping an eye on them, because one of the geese and one of the ducks each have a ring on one leg. The startling thing about the geese is that they seem to be habituated; I got photos of one feeding at the water's edge, and s/he was no more than about two feet away - and apparently utterly unconcerned about my presence despite my total lack of concealment. The goose who was egg-sitting was equally unconcerned, which surprised me even more. I'll try to post some photos when I can.

I wish I knew what happened to that little duckling.

The lodge is fairly isolated, so it should be relatively safe, but even so it seems there are dangers. My best guess is a predatory bird - there's a shallow river not too far away on which I saw a heron.

Oh well. I'm going back there today, as it's a nice day again, and we'll see what's what.

Julian · 03-05-2011, 16:22

It sounds like a COOT

Anonymouse · 04-05-2011, 13:30

That's it exactly! Thanks!

The missing chick hadn't turned up as of yesterday.

Oh well. Another nice day, another visit later.

Anonymouse · 12-05-2011, 13:24

Yesterday there was a new development - one I still can't believe.

When I got there, the first thing I saw was both geese on the water - with 4 little goslings in tow! My first thoughts were both happy and a little sad, because a) the eggs had hatched, b) I'd missed the event, dammit, and c) only 4 had hatched, out of 5 eggs. Oh well, it happens.

None of this is particularly remarkable, of course. The remarkable bit came when I made my way to the nest to take a look out of interest - and I discovered another goose still sitting on it! Then I saw a fourth goose swimming off to one side - in other words, the original pair are still nesting and there's a new pair of geese, with four goslings in tow! My question: how the hell did they get there?!

The goslings can't be more than a few days old - they're very small with the typical yellow downy plumage, and therefore can't fly. The parents, of course, couldn't possibly have carried them. And as of 5 days ago, this pair simply were not there!

I'm utterly baffled. It's completely impossible that they arrived, laid a clutch and hatched them in only 5 days. The only explanation that makes sense (?) is that there's been an intervention of some kind - someone brought that pair, with either hatched goslings or unhatched eggs, to the site sometime in the last 5 days.

'Why' is fairly obvious - a conservation effort of some kind, although Canada geese are an introduction to this country and far from endangered either here or in Canada. The real question is 'who'.

I think I'll investigate.

As for the coots, they're doing well - they still have 6 little chicks (not so little now, actually), and there's a second pair who I think, I hope, are preparing to have their own; I saw one which seemed to be gathering nest material. We can but hope.

Anonymouse · 13-05-2011, 13:54

More weirdness - the geese and goslings, the recent arrivals, have gone!

Yesterday they made like the little man upon the stair - you know, the one who wasn't there. They weren't there again today. What is going on?

As for the coots, they've had another casualty; they're down to five chicks now.

They've relocated to a different part of the lodge, presumably because they feel it's safer. I hope it is. If the weather improves, I'll go back later today.

mrmistoffelees · 13-05-2011, 19:58

Oh imagine my disappointment on opening this thread..........

Apologies to the op no offense intended

Caff · 13-05-2011, 20:01

I've finally learned the difference between a moorhen and a coote

Anonymouse · 16-05-2011, 13:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

Oh imagine my disappointment on opening this thread..........

Apologies to the op no offense intended

Disappointed? Why? Unless you thought I meant what I once heard described as ladies of the opposite sex, of course. There's a thread for that here.

Anyway. I found out what probably happened to the two coot chicks - a dirty great heron probably happened to them. One came swooping in on Friday - and the male coot immediately took to the air and engaged in a very spirited defence of the chicks, while mum and the chicks scarpered for the nearest bank and the cover of an overhanging tree. It looked rather like a B-52 bomber being tackled by a Red Arrow jet, but he did the job magnificently; the heron was repelled in seconds. Yay!

Also a new pair of Canada geese came in - and were promptly shooed away by the resident male. This was expected - and funny to see, I love the way they sort of waterski when chasing/being chased - but I'm still baffled about the other disappearing pair. Oh well.

Weather's lousy again, but I'm going later today anyway. Still lacking a job, it's not as if I have much else to do.

Caff · 16-05-2011, 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Disappointed? Why? Unless you thought I meant what I once heard described as ladies of the opposite sex, of course. There's a thread for that here.

Anyway. I found out what probably happened to the two coot chicks - a dirty great heron probably happened to them. One came swooping in on Friday - and the male coot immediately took to the air and engaged in a very spirited defence of the chicks, while mum and the chicks scarpered for the nearest bank and the cover of an overhanging tree. It looked rather like a B-52 bomber being tackled by a Red Arrow jet, but he did the job magnificently; the heron was repelled in seconds. Yay!

Also a new pair of Canada geese came in - and were promptly shooed away by the resident male. This was expected - and funny to see, I love the way they sort of waterski when chasing/being chased - but I'm still baffled about the other disappearing pair. Oh well.

Weather's lousy again, but I'm going later today anyway. Still lacking a job, it's not as if I have much else to do.

Your description is wonderful.

Ditto and it's good to be able have time to appreciate the wildlife around us

Anonymouse · 21-05-2011, 12:57

Well, I'd appreciate a bit less time, i.e. I'd prefer to be in a job, but the sentiment is appreciated, as are the reps.

I seem to be turning this thread into a blog of sorts. Apart from the fact that I once swore I'd never do that - in my opinion people who keep diaries tend to spend too much time doing that and not enough actually living - I hope it isn't against forum rules or something.

Anyway. Another surprise yesterday: as I was leaving for the day, I heard an almighty honking from the nearby shallow river - more Canada geese. Curious, I went to investigate, expecting to see two or three engaged in courting/territorial behaviour.

There were eight...not counting the three goslings one pair had.

They're not recent hatchings, either, they're too big for that - two weeks or so at least. They weren't there two weeks ago! What is going on?!

As for the lodge residents, the coots are still going strong with 5 chicks, and mama goose is still sittin' tight on her nest with papa patrolling the lodge. Four mallard ducks put in an appearance, with two males pestering a female - who kept flying off, clearly uninterested. Either she isn't in season or she already has a mate; maybe he was one of the two males chasing the other off. Again, I'm no expert.

Back there later today; hopefully the weather will hold...and hopefully the world won't end.

Anonymouse · 23-05-2011, 13:05

Well, now. Apparently the world didn't end. You'll forgive me for not being surprised.

Anyway. Back at the lodge, things have been happening!

The resident geese are now parents!
...of only one chick, sadly. Some distance away I found the remains of at least one eggshell, so it seems fairly obvious what happened there...

The second pair of coots are, I've discovered, nesting. I found the nest on Saturday, with two eggs in it. The next day, though, there were three eggs! Maybe coots stagger their egg-laying?

As for the mystery of the disappearing geese with 4 goslings, as Monsieur Clouseau might say, the mystery is solvèd! It seems no human intervention was/is necessary to explain it; a passer-by who knew a bit more about them told me that they do in fact make their goslings walk considerable distances after hatching, therefore they could have come from pretty much anywhere. Logical - predators might find the nest. I confirmed that the resident pair had in fact done this when I didn't find them on the lodge (shock! horror! until reason cut in), but did find them on the nearby river.

That one-day-old gosling must be a little trooper, though - the trip is a bit formidable for something that small. It's a bit of a slog for me, and I am what Firefly's Hoban Washburne ('Wash' to his wife and friends) would describe as a large, semi-muscular man.

A walk up the lodge bank; the slope is about 30 degrees. Then down the other side - more like 45 degrees. A yomp through dense undergrowth for over 100 yards until they reach the footpath leading parallel to the river; there's a choice of routes, though the only easy, clear path is nearly twice as long as the one through the undergrowth. Finally a vertical drop of nearly two feet from the footpath to the riverbank. If you're a one-day-old gosling with tiny little legs, this must be the equivalent of an SAS assault course. The little beggar clearly made it, though.

This also accounts for the disappearing family mentioned in an earlier post, as they're there too; they now have three goslings (down from four), which are cute as anything.

There's a pair of mallard ducks who have two of the smallest chicks I've ever seen, too.

The passer-by also told me there's a pair of great tits who nest every year just over the river - there's a badly dilapidated railing along the path, and in one section two steel tubular uprights are missing their crosspiece; where the crosspiece was, there's a hole big enough for, say, a great tit to get in and out. The nest is at the bottom of the pipe. I couldn't believe it, but what a perfect location! Utterly impregnable to any predator (even a burrowing one, as the uprights are planted in stone), waterproof, windproof, even fireproof, and - as the entrance is over two feet off the ground - inaccessible to anything other than, possibly, a snake or something like a weasel or stoat - none of which are found in that area as far as I know.

The weather's gone lousy again, as I knew it would. No, I didn't consult any weatherman or the Internet; I have a much more reliable source... the peony my mum planted in 1976, when we moved in. For ten years the damn thing did nothing, and Mum gave up on it. Then it started sprouting, and has flowered every year ever since.

And once the flowers reach full bloom, rain is guaranteed.

If the weather lets up, I'm going back...with some bread. It seems Canada geese like it as well as ducks do, so weather permitting I'm going to shamelessly lure the families in close to get good photos!

DaiNasty · 23-05-2011, 13:59

I believe all birds stagger their egg-laying. I'd imagine it takes quite a lot of fuel and energy to make an egg so it can't be done too quickly.

Anonymouse · 24-05-2011, 13:45

Well, the bread worked.

I shamelessly tossed little pieces to the geese and goslings. They were equally shameless in accepting it and, indeed, asking for it - at one point one of the adults came quite close and opened his/her beak; it was almost comical. I think I'll call that one Oliver Twist.

At one point there was a bit of drama: one adult argued with another from the one-gosling family, shooing it away - and the little gosling was caught up in the scuffle and got a ducking, poor little thing. But in the process it also got carried away by the current, ending up 50 yards away! Not only that, the three-gosling family then headed downstream, carrying the little one with them, while its parents apparently just looked on!

I was very worried about this; the parents would never feed or even tolerate that gosling, and if it were separated from its parents that'd be all she wrote. I seriously considered doing something I shouldn't, i.e. intervening somehow - the river's no more than a foot or so deep and I decided I wouldn't mind wet feet too much. I figured all the little one had to do was get away somehow, and its parents would guide it to relative safety. I even tried to distract the three-gosling family by tossing more bread to them, but the little one didn't make any headway at first in terms of making a break for it.

As it happened, it wasn't necessary to intervene. The little one finally proved its mettle once again by fighting the current somehow and making its way back to the parents. I spent a few minutes reswallowing my heart.

The coots, though, were a different matter - far more cautious and, I'll admit, sensible. The bread went down very well with them, but the chicks weren't feeding themselves as the goslings did; instead the parents would grab the pieces and feed the chicks, and as a result the chicks didn't come in close, so I couldn't get the photos I was hoping for.

Whenever a parent picked up a bit of bread, one or more chicks would head straight for it, cheeping eagerly, so it was obviously welcome. Maybe a few more sessions will build up a degree of trust, once they accept that I'm not some weird generous predator.

The weird bit I could readily admit to, though.

Two new geese have moved onto the lodge, and were arguing loudly with a third - presumably they're claiming the territory after the residents moved out. I wonder if they'll nest? We can but hope.

I couldn't see anything in the coot nest, as mum was sittin' tight. Oh well. It's a nice day today; I'll go and see what's what. I'll have to see about setting up a website or something, so I can post some photos.

By the way, thanks for the reps, guys! I will indeed keep it going; it's more interesting than staying home, my daft cat notwithstanding.

Anonymouse · 25-05-2011, 14:18

More news, good and bad:

The coots now have only four chicks, apparently.

Hopefully the fifth was hiding somewhere; I'll look today. But I don't expect to find it.

Better news - the other coot pair's nest now has 5 eggs!

The two goose families seem to be doing well, though the one-gosling family had another bit of drama. They were on the riverbank with the gosling, nibbling at the greenery, but when the parents decided to get back into the water, the little 'un apparently didn't want to know! It looked and sounded so pathetic, cheeping and dashing back and forth!

The parents kept getting back onto the bank and then slowly slipping into the water, trying to encourage it by showing it what to do, but it kept moving to the edge of the dropoff (which couldn't have been more than 9 inches!) and retreating. Surely sooner or later they'd write it off and leave it there...
Finally I couldn't stand it any more and mounted a passive intervention.

How the hell does one intervene passively, you might ask. Like this: I crossed the river some distance away, and made my way through undergrowth towards where the gosling was, making sure I could easily be heard but not seen. My hope was that it'd think 'Ooh, what's coming? Don't like the sound of it - could be something nasty that wants to eat me - mum, dad, wait for me, I'm coming!' and choose the lesser, known danger of dropping into the river over the unknown possible danger approaching.

It worked. The gosling finally took the plunge, and all was well. Phew.

I had a last-resort option - namely picking the gosling up carefully and placing it in the river - but I was extremely reluctant because a) the parents might pick up on my scent and reject it, and b) birds, especially small ones, instinctively associate the feeling of being held with the imminent threat of being eaten, and I didn't want to scare the poor little thing any more than it already was. This is why I hate it when people handle their budgies and the like - the birds might be used to it from their owners, but there's millions of years of evolution and instinct at work here. A bird should never be handled except by a vet IMO, and only then if it needs treatment of some kind.

It's sunny again. Another trip to the lodge, I think.

joglynne · 25-05-2011, 15:33

You know I am sure your observations would be of interest to a far wider audience than just little old CF. Give your local paper a call and see if they would be interested, they may not be, or they may and not want to pay you but you never know.

Oh and thanks for the posts you have made so far I find them most interesting and entertaining. Any chance of a few pictures of the Coot families?