Pudding Mill River before work began
Photo © Nige Carter 2007
The experts started stunning the fish. Within a few days there were so many carp and bream in our bit of Duckett’s Cutt that you couldn’t see the bottom of the canal.
A big old carp surfaced and blew the usual bubbles at me – it sounds a lot like someone farting, very unnerving at night I can tell you!
I asked him what was going on?
“Daft buggers thought we were going to sit there and wait to be stunned did they? As many of us as were able swam into the Lee Navigational and waited for a nice unsuspecting narrow boat to pass by, came through the locks underneath it and fetched up here. Best not hang about for too long, that Top Lock is packed tighter than the Central line on a Monday morning: But it's a nice spot this, might just have time to get a bit of spawning done before we move one. ”
And they did.
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I've been wondering why the normally quiet cormorants have been bobbing up and down and beating their wings in the water so much over the last week. Last night I found out. I saw one dive and waited to see if it came up with the usual small fish. It really churned up the water when it did eventually surface, (they are usually smooth, graceful divers) so that was odd. Then I saw in its beak a huge eel! The thing was massive. After much diving, jiggling about, bashing and thrashing the bird managed to turn the eel head first then, fast as lightning, swallowed it whole!
The eel was longer than the cormorant's throat so the bird was flapping about, lifting itself up to as near vertical as it could get, trying to get the eel down.
Amazing! And mystery solved.
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Late last night a swan turned up outside and started eating the breakfast I'd put in one of the iris boxes for the coot babes. Next thing I knew the littlest coot chick (LCC) was hurtling across the water as fast as her little matchstick legs and wing buds would take her, trying to attack the swan and protect her breakfast!
Well, LCC is about the size of the swan's beak, I was sure this was curtains for her, even if the swan just batted her away she'd have had it. But LCC's attack was so unexpected that the swan backed off! Talk about David and Goliath!
Breakfast was saved. Mum and Dad literally hauled LCC back into the nest once it was safe enough for them to approach, and she was given a really good scolding. I threw bread into another part of the canal for the swan and we agreed we'd say no more about it.
LCC has been re-named Feisty, I think she has earned herself a proper name.
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Do you ever feel sorry for goldfish swimming round and round in a small bowl? Well good news, you don’t ever need to feel sorry for them again. This morning was a golden one, so as usual I found myself gainfully employed doing nothing but watching the day unfold before me. The tits were at the feeders early, the coot teenagers had to be hauled out of bed while the little ones next door were up and about, virtuously early, pecking bits and bobs from the canal sides.
I heard a “plop” and there right below me were the big fish. They are about a foot long, some bigger, some smaller. I asked my fisherman neighbour what they were one day and he told me that some are carp and some are bream. These are grey with lighter splodges on their backs, I’ve not a clue which is which so I call them all “creams”. Well, that’s one less thing to worry about.
The creams have a huge amount of canal available to them, there must be over a mile of uninterrupted water before they reach anything so troublesome as a lock. So what do they do? Yup, swim round and round the same area in great big circles. I reckoned that if you take size into consideration, the area they have staked as their own is pretty much equivalent to a gold fish bowl. Is that where they started? Did they end up in the canal after being flushed down the loo when they were little? Is there some weird quirk which means they cannot swim in a straight line, just round n circles? I'll ask that big old carp when he is back this way.
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Ohhh, after some heavy storms one of the narrow boats sank at the local moorings!! It was a nice little one too, what a shame! It's still upright but has a good 3 or 4 feet of water in it I'd guess. I don't know if it was still floating (sort of) or if it has sunk down onto the bottom of the canal. I hope it can be saved.
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Recently Solomon and Serena (the swans) showed up with a cygnet riding on their backs - soooo sweet!
Orphaned ducklings and loads of other birds young and old, are keeping my feeders busy. I've cut back on the breadmaking - I can make a loaf for the birds for under 15p - and discovered that the birds are a great substitute compost bin - I'm not sure how much I really appreciate the "compost" they leave me after I've topped them up though.
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Today I was outside in my chair, half asleep, with the little box in which I keep bits of bread beside me on a small table. After a while I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, a blackbird was on the edge of the table eyeing up the bread. Then, with me just inches from it, it gave a quick flick of its wings, up onto the edge of the box and helped itself, magic.
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Breakfast of toast and coffee outside was the idea.
But then Raucous the goose showed up with his new lady in tow, so that was the end of the toast. Then the chaffinches very kindly added seeds from an upstairs neighbour's feeders to my coffee, such incredible aim to get them into such a small target: And I really, really do not need the extra carbs, thank you very much!
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Right. I have a very little problem, there is a snail in the spout of my watering can and I can't persuade it to come out. I talked to a pal about it, his recommendation was to smash it, but I can't as I've looked it in the eye when it peeped out the spout after almost being drowned. Anyone had any experience in evicting snails from watering can spouts? It's quite a nice snail; they have really interesting heads when you have a good look. I've found somewhere I can evict it to where it can munch to it's hearts content without annoying anyone....
Did I just say it's "quite a nice snail"? Aaaarrrgh! Get me to the therapist! Or maybe I'm a Buddhist at heart. (Are they the ones who don't kill anything?) Whatever...
My poor lettuces.
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This page is still under construction - which basically means I need the residents to keep still long enough for me to be able to get a half decent picture of them; this may take some time...
in the interim, you may enjoy watching this
baby duck feed the carp (Nishiki-Goi, Koi)
By ohsako