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Yesterday was heavenly. A much loved friend came to help me move some heavy stuff. That was quickly dealt with and the rest of the beautiful sunny day was ours. A stoll across the park for lunch, another stroll to walk off lunch, which of course led to a refuelling stop for coffee and cakes in the park lakeside pavillion. Then along the canals for a browse in the garden centre, which just happens to sell the most beautifull little tubs of ice cream - if you are local and you've not found Growing Concerns garden centre yet, it's well worth a visit at any time of year. Good weather, good food and spending quality time with one of the people I love the most. A perfect day.
Autumn mists - flame tinged tree tops sailing through a moonstone sea. Silver filigree spider webs sparkle in the morning light. The crunch of fallen leaves and the thud of chestnuts falling. And through it all the soft kiss of the sun, promising more, later.
OK, who took all that water out of the canal.....
Missing, about a foot of canal water. The cormorants are offering a fishy reward to anyone who can put it back again. The fish are offering pet cormorants, free to a good home, for the same thing.
I was going to tell you about Tatty.
I was in my outside chair one early spring day when a very bedragled young wood pigeon turned up on the balcony rail. Chaffinch had been busy on the feeder upstairs so there was an assortment of discarded seeds scattered about me. Once Tatty had fluffed up his 2 tail feathers and not-quite-fully-featherd wings he felt brave enough to ignore the human, flew down and ate up the seeds. This new fledgling still had his nest manners - he backed up to the edge of the balcony to poop! I like this bird :-)
At first the little bird shot off if I so much as blinked but soon after his first appearance something even more frightening than the human showed up, fully grown wood pigeons, and they attacked him. There was only one thing Tatty could do - hide under the human's chair and pretend he didn't know she was sitting in it.
We got along just fine after that. Tatty went from one adventure to another, all of which appeared to cost him a few more feathers, as fast as he grew them he lost a few more in one scrape or another. A couple of weeks ago I was woken just after dawn by a horrendous noise and rushed out to find Tatty in the jaws of a cat. At my appearance the cat dropped Tatty and ran, Tatty flew over the canal and into his tree. It had looked bad so I was convinced that the shock of the event would kill the poor little bird. It didn't, a day or so later he turned up as usual on his single-beaked mission to keep my paving seed free.
Sadly, within a week of the attack infection set in to the wounds and Tatty spent his last hours on the balcony with me before tumbling off into the coots nest, where he died watching the sun on the canal.
The cat who caught Tatty wasn't Maisy-Daisy I'm glad to say... Who is Maisy-Daisy? More about her later!
There are lots of mallard families on the canal at the moment.
Mother of the year has to be "Mum of Eight" who watches over her brood so carefully. Recently a lot of canoes came along, scattering ducks and ducklings before them. Mo8 led her family away as fast as their little legs could paddle, but the canoes kept coming and the family were scattered in all directions. Some time later Mo8 turned up with 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 duckilings in tow. She was frantically calling and searching for the lost little one and didn't stop until she eventually found it hiding in the reeds. Then it was a quick visit to bread lady for a late tea, then into the iris beds for a good long sleep.
This morning a couple of ducklings came along, peeping loudly. They had lost their Mum. While I was consoling them with a bit of bread Mum flew up, scolded them for wandering off, helped them to a bit more bread then took them on their way.
One duckling in each of the families I have mentioned is distinctly blonde. Much lighter than their sidlings, there must be a light coloured drake somewhere out there...
...and he has had a very busy spring!
Early this morning I spotted a crow chasing a guinea pig along the edge of the park...
Today a lesser black-backed gull (very big bird, dark on top pale underneath and a beak to respect) decided to come for lunch on the canal. Unfortunately for the gull, lunch's parents objected quite violently to his choice from the menu. Gull 0 Coots 1.
The damsel flies have been out in force this weekend and they are mating, something I didn't see at all last year. The four coot teenagers have been scurrying around trying to catch the pre-occupied neon blue matchsticks, but damselflies can fly, something coot teenagers can only dream about. Third coot brood are a week old now, three surviving chicks + an early lunch.
We have bats. So far I've detected Pipistrelles. There may be others, I'm not too sure enough of my identifications yet though. I had fantastic views recently of a trio of bats hunting insects above the plants I grow. Unfortunately it was at 4.30am.... :-(
Also spotted, a pair of spotted flycatchers darting out from the chestnut trees to take insects over the canal. There are some odd insects too, some sort of tree cricket was wandering along the balcony rail today, they really are leaf green, no wonder I've never seen one before. Also spotted an old favorite of mine, a kestrel, checking out the towpath, they are infrequent visitors to this specific part of east London.
Remind me to write about littleTatty...
Well there is a strange thing! The coot parents have 4 hatchlings and have just taken them out onto the water for the first time, wonderful! That gave me a chance to peep into the nest, there are 6 unhatched eggs still in there. Now I'd been pretty certain that there were originally 9 eggs, but the current tally is 4 hatchlings + 6 eggs + 1 chicked killed last week = 11. Whats going on?
The teenage chick has been set to nest-building lessons and, after Dad started it, is now busily building what I suspect will be the nursery nest for the hatchlings. Of course all this activity has to be fueled by large amounts of food to keep the poor, starved, overworked little thing going ;-)
The black-headed gulls and most of the geese have gone now, with just a few resident geese remaining. There are reports of goslings further along the canal, so I shall be investigating this weekend.
Smaller birds are visiting the feeders in droves at the moment so I've put some little pots of live food out for them, 2 sizes of meal worms and some wax worms. The hard part is finding a safe place to put the food where the birds can find it. Experiments continue.
Well I'm beginning to get the hang of the new camera, I think, you can decide for yourselves when I add some pics over the next few days.
If you've followed churchmouse's tip and found your way here from OS, welcome, you lovely folk :-) I hope you have all forgiven me for starting the daily today, naughty I know, but that's me ;-) If anyone reading this is wondering what on earth I'm on about, check out one of the warmest, friendliest, most supportive online communities you will ever find, moneysaving Old style.
The birds are as amazing as ever especially the current duck population. There have been mallard ducklings on the canal for a few weeks now, but they are a bit camera shy, and can move as fast as speed boats when they want to! The crows have very strange sounding young in the chestnut trees opposite. There is a male tawny owl in the park. Did you know that the tuit twoo call is 2 birds? The tuit is the contact call of a female owl and the twoo is the call of an answering male. The park bird goes twoo, so..... :-)
The sun and fresh growth have brought energy back to the squirrels, the acrobatic displays in the trees have to be seen to be believed! Double back flip? No problemo!
Now a very sad bit.
Last night I witnessed something which I was expecting to see sooner or later, but nothing could prepare me for the reality once it finally happened. Mrs coot has just incubated her 2nd brood. Only one chick survived from the first brood and that is now well grown. I thought the very cold weather and storms which hit shortly after the first brood hatched had accounted for the other chicks in the 1st brood, but now I'm not so sure.
The current nest is immediately below my terrace so I can see straight into the nest. 2 chicks hatched on Wednesday, they usually hatch 2 a day once they start, and there were 9 eggs in this brood. Yesterday evening one of the adult coots was sitting on the nest, on both eggs and chicks, while the other parent sat in the iris box beside the nest, took hold of a chick by the leg and swung it around like a rag doll. This was alternated with swinging it by a wing bud or by its head, Sometimes the chick was stuffed into the gap between the iris boxes, then hauled out again, half drowned. Coots are notorious for infanticide, I know it is common, but this was horrific. The same adult then attempted to drown the teenage chick from the first brood. I'm afraid I Interferred at that point and threw something at it, the teenage chick got away but the day old one had no chance at all.
8 left.... I hope.
Spring is sprung,
the grass is riz,
I wonder where the birdies is?
Well, Mrs Coot WAS... arriving at the new nest by boat?
Then she assisted Mr Coot in a scrap with the neighbours
Because she was looking after...
And today...
The chicks have hatched.
Other notable visitors recently
Tufty
and new birds for me...
Red-Crested Pochard
MAGIC!
Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is? Well Mrs Coot is on eggs... already!
Raucous has been for a wander round my living room, I made a lovely new pal, little Tufty, the tufted duck, and best of all, I've a new camera! so photos are on their way!