A Black Wagtail

On Monday, just after mid-day, I saw a strange wagtail beside one of the wooded lakes near Farnborough North station.  It was definitely a wagtail: it was the right size and shape, and it behaved like one bobbing its tail up and down as it perched on a branch.  However, its head, neck and upper part of its chest were all black.  Its back was grey and the rest of its body was mostly black with whitish streaks here and there.  While I was watching, it repeated the call "chi-chee" several times and then it flew off into the woods.  I suppose it could have been an unusually dark pied wagtail, maybe a juvenile as these tend to have less well developed white patches than the adults.

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 (!).