What with all the packing, telling everybody we are about to move and juggling the finances, it was pleasant to take the dog for a walk down to the country park. I had to drop off some keys at the rangers' office and was greeted with those dreaded words "two Black Swans on the main lake"! Doh!
Well, I did see them at a distance; no need to get close as they were the only big, black and long-necked things on the water. I remember my first encounter with the species, way back in the early 'seventies. I was doing a wildlife management plan for the quarry owners at what is now Thorpe Park water ski lake, part of the theme park near Chertsey (Surrey). In those days the company was 'Redland' but now they are known as 'Cemex'.
The wind had abated and the sun had come out, too. The lake was festooned with the, by now, omnipresent Coot but fewer Mute Swans than earlier this autumn. A trot round to the Fingers yielded a tight bunch of 20 Gadwall, 5 pairs of Shoveler keeping their distance from each other, 4 Little Grebe, 3 Grey Herons and little in the way of Mallard. The trees and bushes were alive with the recent intruders, the continental Blackbirds; some Redwing were also present, but they have been around for a couple of weeks now. What I did notice was a couple of "high flying" Song Thrushes, with their distinctive "armpits".
An amble round to the ringing site proved worthwhile. BTCV volunteers have been in and reduced or pushed back some of the taller vegetation, but more needs to be done to keep the site "up to standard" before the next breeding season. Also, the rudimentary beginnings of a wicker shelter have appeared; when this has been finished with thatch from the 'crescent' reedbed, it will give some shelter from the sun and rain for the young schoolchildren on their "field days". [That was what they were called in my day].
Then it was back home - to argue the toss about insurance (bloody rip-off)
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