When I started this blog an wrote an initial review of our year's activities I did not anticipate writing another so soon, however Spring it seems is here.
On Friday morning (4th May) I saw some chicks for the first time this year. They were 2 Canada Geese goslings being shepherded carefully by a pair of adults, presumably their parents, from the island below the weir and up the left side of the weir to the pool above. When we went for a brief walk yesterday (7th May) the family was in the same area.
On our walk upstream to Fletcher Moss and back we saw 2 herons fishing from the banks. A goosander flew over our heads at one stage which reminded me that I hadn't seen one for quite a few weeks now. At one stage I saw a small group, mixed male and female, of up to 7 almost every morning.
In the last few days I have had several sightings of herons around the weir.
When I sat down to write this I noticed that on the Friends of Chorlton Meadows blog Dave Bishop has written a post about the importance of appreciating and recording wildlife and a forthcoming event at Chorlton Ees on Sat 2nd June. You can read more about this on their blog - see my next brief post for a link!
The goslings seemed to dissapear almost the next day. Given that Canadian geese usually have larger broods I cannot help wondering if the mink are responsible. There have been no ducklings in the area so far this year. I have spotted mink on three occassions now down by the weir.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to start keeping a lookout for mink! Thanks for the comment!
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