Three Birds of Prey

On a walk along the Thames near Wallingford today, Zoe and I saw a falcon, probably a kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), drifting on a stiff cold breeze, occasionally turning into the wind to look longer at something that caught its eye on the ground, before resuming its drifting.  It didn't hover while we were watching, but then it was probably high enough up not to need to.  It was  little larger than a pigeon and had a straight, unforked tail.

On the way home, probably somewhere near Cane End, I saw a red kite from the car.  It passed almost overhead quite low, its forked tail obvious.  Fortunately I was not driving or we might have run off the road.  Zoe was on the wrong side of the car and didn't see it.  It was clearly larger than the falcon we had seen earlier.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, Zoe and I saw another probable falcon being mobbed by a gull while we were walking along Alexandra Road in Reading later that afternoon.  This was similar in shape the the falcon we had seen earlier, but was possibly a bit larger and heavier.  It was similar in size the gull that was mobbing it.  However, it was too far away to identify properly.

Bullfinch

On Friday morning at just after 11am I was walking from Frimley to Farnborough North.  As I was passing the seat overlooking the lake nearest Frimley, I noticed a bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) in a bush.  It had a red front, a grey back, a black head and a white patch on the front of its wings.  It was joined in the bush by a flock of long-tailed tits.  I turned round to continue on my way, and almost immediately four greenfinches flew across my path.  Further along the path, in the denser woodland there were the usual robins, great tits, magpies and a jay.  And to top it all, when I got to Farnborough North there was a cormorant perched on the tree by the big lake, holding its wings out to dry in the breeze.

Signs of Spring on the Lakes

When Zoe and I went for our walk around the lakes last Sunday morning, things were much quieter then they had been only a week or two earlier.  Sadly for Zoe, the muscovy duck was nowhere to be seen.  Also, the female of the old pair of Egyptian geese was missing, but maybe she was just hiding away somwhere sitting on a clutch of eggs. The male didn't seem particularly distressed.  The mandarin ducks were also acting differently: instead of swimming around under the bushes, the males were in a group on the bank squabbling, presumably over females.   Of the 20-30 shoveler ducks that were on the lakes in December, only 3 pairs were left, each pair consisting of one male and one female circling each other with beaks submerged.  On my way to work on Monday morning I noticed 3 pairs of shovelers on the lake near Frimley; they were still there this afternoon as I walked back to catch the train home.  It looks as if the large densely packed roating groups we saw in December were not just for feeding, they must also be where the males and females chose their mates before dispersing as couples to other lakes in the area.

Mallard Chicks in Oxford

I was in Oxford again today.  As I was striding along Hythe Bridge Street, I glanced over the bridge to have a look at the canal.  In the foliage on the bank next to Upper Fisher Row was a pale female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) with at least two tiny chicks.  I stopped and watched them as they moved in and out of the broad-leaved water plants (irises?).  Lots of people hurried by me as I was stood there, but none stopped to look.

I am not sure that this is the earliest I have seen chicks, but February the 4th does seem unusually early.  If I remember correctly, a mallard on the Reading University Lakes had 16 chicks in February a few years ago, but they subsequently all died when a cold spell came along in March.   However, the short-term future of the Oxford chicks looks good: the -5 degrees C forecast for Sunday night has now been revised upwards to 0 degrees C.

Ducks, Geese and Zoe

Last spring and summer, Liz took Zoe to see the ducks and geese on the Reading University lakes almost every day after school.  Zoe came to recognise some individual birds and even gave names to the various Egyptian geese there.  Well, last Sunday afternoon, on two occasions I saw clear evidence that some of the birds, at least, also recognise Zoe. 

On the north side of the big lake we came across the muscovy duck.  It was looking rather subdued and was hiding under some overhanging branches.  Then it saw Zoe and determinedly waddled out from the water and onto the path where it persistently fussed around Zoe, going around and in between her legs, all the time looking up asking to be fed.  This bird must have been domesticated - it treated Zoe as it would have treated its owner who had come to feed it.  The duck was so absorbed in what it was doing that it even failed to notice two dogs that walked by (not on leads) only a few feet away.  Zoe eventually got out some bread and fed it but even then we had to lay a trail of bread back to the water in order to stop it from following us.

Later, on the other side of the lake near the island we stopped for a moment and Zoe got her plastic bag of bread to feed some mallards.  I noticed the two old Egyptian geese (the ones Zoe calls Rosie and Sam) over on the north side.  They were picking up food that someone was throwing down when, suddenly, they took to the air and flew together out over the lake. Egyptian geese in flight are fairly impressive with their white-barred wings flapping noisily, and everyone turned round and watched them as they did a full circuit of the lake and then came down to land on the grass - right next to Zoe!  They then hurried over to beg food off her.