Dear Lads,
Well it is almost the end of the month and a twelfth of the year has nearly passed. I have not lost any of the extra kilos I gained over Christmas, the house is no tidier and I am struggling to keep up with everything ( i.e. the swimming, the reading, the languages, the housework as well as work and trying to slim).
Anyway we are healthy and not too badly off which is much better then many people in this world. Accordingly we decided after a morning of chores to head out to look for Whooper swans at Thumpton just off the A453 near the power station. We had distant views at first but having negotiated the back roads we found a whole flock of geese and swans in a field near Thrumpton.
There were four whooper swans among over 23 Egyptian geese, approximately 35 mute swans Some were hiding in hollows a few Greylag geese and a few Canada geese.
Thank you to Clifton grove birds for this photo again the birds were too distant to obtain a good clear image
We were very pleased when amongst them but out on its own we found a tundra Bean goose. a very obliging bird that gave us excellent views as we noted all its salient features.
Thanks to Sean Browne for this photograph it was too far away for us to photograph
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Encouraged by our success we decided to Head for Attenborough where a starling murmuration had been reported. Unfortunately this is where our luck ran out as we exited the car the rain hurled down and we got soaked so no murmuration for us. The result of all this rain was that the car park cleared faster than usual the only busy place was the cafe where families sought to dry out and warm up with drinks and food. We had a very cheeky Egyptian goose approach us just above the sign advertising bird food. You can see how wet it was.
At the bottom of the ramp a pair of mandarin ducks were loitering in the hope of obtaining food. There were no rings on their legs nor were their wings clipped so I concluded that these were part of the increasing feral population of these ducks. Whilst we have seen female Mandarins here before we had never seen a male. As he was obviously strutting about to attract the female I wondered if this was why he had turned up at this location.
Before the telescopes and binoculars were full of water we decided to abandon the starling flock and return home.
We hope you are both well and happy. We had a very enjoyable weekend last weekend and we are eagerly anticipating another visit sometime. Please can you let me know dates when you will be free around Easter so we can plan a trip to see you.
Lots of love
Your mother
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