Sparrows trying to be Swallows

With the warmer weather we are now getting quite a few flies over the lakes and rivers.  This week I noticed house sparrows hunting mayflies over the Kennet near Kings Point, something that I remember also seeing last summer.  They perch on the railings that run alongside the river, and when they see a suitable fly, they launch themselves out across the river, snapping at the fly, landing on the railings on the other side with it in their beak, if they are lucky.

Yet More Chicks!

This morning I walked down town by myself.  There were quite a few people standing on the banks of the Kennet looking at the young coots and mallard ducks.  The coot nesting near Highbridge Wharf had six red-headed chicks, some out on the water and others, probably only just newly hatched, peeping out from under their  mother's wing.  The female mallard still has all nine of the chicks it had a week ago.

At lunch time, Zoe went up to the University lakes and reports that the flock of Canada geese chicks is now 19 (!) strong.  She thinks that this is a creche consisting of chicks from 3 broods.

Red Kite over Reading Town Centre

This morning at 6:40 I was walking briskly along King's Road past the Huntley and Palmer building when  I noticed a large bird of prey high in the direction of  the town centre.  Its forked tail indicated that it was a red kite.  It was drifting in the cold easterly breeze, circling here and there.  I stopped to watch it for a couple of minutes.  It had a large gap in the feathers on the trailing edge of its left wing but this didn't seem to hinder its flying at all: it soared effortlessly, looking down all the time (maybe for stray chicks on the Kennet?).  Eventually I had to hurry on to catch my train. 

Chicks Galore!

This last week there seems to have been a boom in the number of young birds.  On the Frimley lakes in the mornings I saw three pairs of Canada geese with 4, 3 and 1 young.   Near Farnborough North station one evening there was a young, but fledged, song thrush cheeping stridently for its parents to feed it.  On the Kennet in Reading town centre the swans from near Homebase had at first 7, but later 6, fluffy grey cygnets.  The coot chick from the nest near Gunter's brook is now larger and is out and about on the river with its parents.  Another pair of coots nesting on the other side, nearer the town centre, have 5 very small chicks which were spilling over the sides of the nest this afternoon as I walked  past.  Last Saturday, Zoe noticed two young pigeons in the girders under the bridge where the Kennet goes under Watlington Street.  And, finally, this evening I took Zoe to the Reading University lakes where we  saw three coot families with 5, 4 and 2 chicks and a pair of Canada geese with 13 (!).

Blackcap Songs

Yesterday I was walking back through the woods near Frimley when I saw a male blackcap singing.  Its song was rather like a short version of a blackbird song.  A little further along the path a small bird flew across my path making a loud tak-tak-tak alarm call.  I took this to be a wren, but on closer inspection its was slim and warbler-like with a greyish body and some brown around its head (it didn't stay still long enough for me to get a good look).  This could have been a female blackcap as, according to BWPE-CE, blackcaps also make a tak-tak-tak sound