The Return of the Egyptian Geese
Sun 2004-10-10 This morning at 09:00am I went for another walk around the Reading University lakes with Zoe. There is much more bird activity on the lakes in mornings than later in the day, especially now that the evenings are getting darker.
The 'resident pair' of egyptian geese (the rufous phase male with its lame grey phase female) were standing on the weir at the west end of the largest lake when they suddenly took off and flew off towards the centre of the lake. Then we saw five rufous egyptian geese fly in overhead, circle the lake and splash down on the water. These could well have been the resident pair's first and second generation offspring coming back to the lake on which they were reared. We hadn't seen them for several weeks. Maybe they have been staying on some of the other lakes in the Reading area. Anyhow, a few minutes later there was a commotion when a rufous form one chased off several of the others. Maybe this was one of the parents telling its offspring to go and find their own lake - I understand that birds can be quite ruthless when it comes to encouraging their young to fend for themselves.
We also saw a lone cormorant, as we did back in August, standing on the same submerged rock. Over the past couple of weeks I have seen a lone cormorant on three occasions, twice on the lakes between Frimley and Farnborough, and once over the Kennet in Reading. I suppose it is possible that these sightings are all of the same bird moving around from one body of water to another.
