Egyptian Goose Chick

The last surviving egyptian goose chick on the Reading University lakes is doing well, as you can see from this picture I took on Sunday.   Its parents were taking great care of it: chasing away  mallards and coots that came too close and quickly shepherding it out of the way of swans.  It seemed to instinctively know to go to the water's edge when danger threatened.

Long-tailed Tits no longer in Flocks

Over the past few days Zoe and I have seen several long-tailed tits.  What was unusual about these was that they were on their own and not in a flock.  I suppose that this is the time of year when they pair off and and the flocks split up.  While one of each pair sits on the nest, the other will be foraging for food, alone.

Goldfinches

On Saturday morning I saw a pair of goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) in Reading town centre.  They were in a small tree at Kennet Wharf (between Duke Street and Crane Wharf).  One was much paler than the other.

Six Cormorants

On Friday morning it was snowing when I arrived at Farnborough North.  As I walked over the bridge I was surprised to see 6 cormorants perched in the tall tree on the Farnborough side of the large lake.  This is the largest number of these birds I have seen on these lakes.  Then I saw that the lake was almost completely frozen over: only two small areas remained unfrozen and both of these were crowded with ducks and geese.  One of these unfrozen areas happened to be just under the tree that the cormorants were in. 

I suppose that it is possible that all 6 cormorants have been on lake for the past few weeks or months, and that I have not noticed them all because they were widely dispersed over its surface, busy fishing.  Now the ice has forced them off the lake and into the tree, their true number is obvious.  Also, with the smaller lakes freezing over before the larger ones, the cormorants from surrounding lakes may have been progressively forced to the big lake.

Duck Path

The footpath that I take from Farnbourough North station to Frimley each morning runs alongside the River Blackwater.  On the other side of the path from the river are a series of lakes, probably flooded gravel pits.  At one point, one of the lakes comes within a few metres of the river and the footpath squeezes between them.  It was here that, a few months ago I noticed a sort of beaten track coming up out of the river, crossing the footpath and descending into the lake on the other side.  At the time I conjectured that this might be a 'path' made by ducks and geese taking the shortest route between the lake and the river.  Well, last night I got my first confirmation of this conjecture: in the half-dark, I saw a pair of mallard ducks using this 'path'  to cross from the river to the lake.  This 'duck path' is fairly well defined, the grass is completely worn away, and the earth shows signs of erosion as it descends the banks on either side.  This suggests that ducks and maybe geese must use it fairly frequently.