Missing Agitated Mallard

Well it is now a week since the strange behaviour of the seemingly agitated duck, I don't know what was wrong with him and probably never will, as he has not returned. I can only assume he was in the grip of something that proved to be terminal, as we have not seen him again.

The female still has her regular companion and seems quite happy, she is still nesting on the garage roof, coming down regularly to eat, drink and bathe.

The garden is beautified by many butterflies, which like this Peacock spend much time basking in the sun when not feeding or flying.

Red legged partridges abound in the garden at the moment, these are one of our most attractive birds, they are however very shy and this makes the moment even more precious not just to be able to watch them but also to photograph them.

We are also enjoying some very spectacular sunsets at present, the different shades and tones in the sky are amazing and well wort

Robins Move On

Sadly the robins seem to have deserted their nest for some reason, however all is not lost as they are now nesting in a nearby shrub and the contents of their nest in the box are being taken by both a great tit and a blue tit for their nests!

Nesting Dunnock and Blackbird

Watched a dunnock gathering nesting material today, she chose to collect the moss growing on the trunk of the old bendy apple tree. A female blackbird was also very busy watched over by the male as she collected grass cuttings for her nest, gleaned from the newly cut lawn.

Odd/Interesting Duck Behaviour

I rose this morning to find one of the male ducks - a mallard already on the side lawn, his feathers were very ruffled, his tail splayed, wings slightly dropped and his beak constantly opening and shutting. I opened a window and fed him, he ate very greedily and quickly as I expected he would, however all the time his tremors continued.

It is now an hour later, he is still on the lawn, suffering the same tremors, constantly grooming, opening and closing his beak and ruffling his feathers.

This is unusual behaviour, I wonder has he been knocked by a car, does he have some sort of degenerative disease, has he eaten some sort of tainted food which has resulted in a neurological disorder, has he sat on an ant's nest and is even now being covered in ant bites? Thoughts run through my mind and I wish I knew the answer, he seems so uncomfortable.

Another hour has passed, he is in the same position and still acting in the same strange manner, for about half an hour he had company as the other male flew down and joined him, any jealous animosity between the two appeared to be forgotten. During his time here the second one ate, drank and bathed in the pond despite this he still spent more than twenty minutes with the "agitated" duck, sitting side by side and often bill to bill. Eventually he flew away having shown none of his previous antipathy toward the "poorly" duck --- indeed he seemed to show a rare friendliness toward him.

It is a few hours now and still he sits and shakes, his behaviour has changed slightly though as he sometimes stands on tiptoe and stretches out his wings and flaps them.

Suddenly the female flew down from her nest on the garage roof, she rushed across to the feeding station to eat, but of course this was where the agitated duck was, immediately and still shaking he began harassing her. "Ah," I thought, "this is his trouble, he is in a high state of sexual arousal, funny  I have never seen this behaviour before though". The poor female did her best to fend him off while she ate, in the end giving up feeding as a bad job she made her way to the pond, she was obviously distressed, her head was withdrawn and her beak open and upward pointing, her body in a ball. She was thwarted here also by the male, still shaking he rushed after her, entering the water at the same time as she did and immediately copulated with her.She was clearly distressed by his behaviour and tried unsuccessfully to fend him off. Afterwards he climbed out of the pond sat by the edge and resumed his agitated shaking.My theory about him being in a high state of sexual arousal is clearly nonsense!

Two hours later he was still sitting by the pond shaking, and he continued to do so for the rest of the day.

Red legged partridges

Delighted this morning to see two red legged partridges at the bottom of the garden. They are very eye catching birds and very quick movers, I have never yet managed to photograph them.

It was unusual to see just two as other years we have seen them in groups of up to ten or twelve.

Fieldfares, redwings and mainly starlings

The day before yesterday I noticed a very large flock of birds settled in the trees at the end of the garden by the river. They were a mixed flock and by the way they flew I was reminded of mistle thrushes, but knew they would never flock like these. I surmised that some of them were probably fieldfares.

Late yesterday afternoon my attention was drawn to the trees again by the loud sound coming from them, it was a sound I had heard before but was unable to place. I looked across at the trees and again saw many birds in them.

This afternoon I looked out of the end kitchen window and saw the birds amassed in the birch tree and flowering cherry tree. I was able to pick up the binoculars and see them clearly, they were fieldfares, redwings and surprisingly starlings, it was then I remembered the sound I had heard the day before and couldn't place, was of starlings.

Many years ago we were delighted to have a flock of starlings roosting in the garden at night, they charmed us with their nightly aerial display and we were sad when they were spooked one 5th November as a nearby town had a very noisy firework display. They flew away and sadly we have hardly seen a starling since in this area.

Maybe, just maybe, some of these will stay and once more we will be delighted by them, if they remain here.

European starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris) are the type we see in Britain, they are medium sized birds and are approximately 8" long from tip of tail to end of beak. They are black in colour with browny beige edges to their wings,  in the winter they have white speckles, come the summer they lose many of the white speckles, their coats appear glossier and in the sunlight shine with startlingly bright irridescent colours. They are then outstandingly beautiful and a real joy to see. Legs are reddish brown and their beaks are yellow in the summer and black in the winter, it is said that males can be told from females by the colour at the base of the beak, girls = pink, boys = blue.

Interestingly, we refer to the aerial displays of the huge flocks of starlings as murmurations however this term used to refer to the noise made by starlings. This noise is the result of the sound emitted from their bills* and also by the wind through their wings.

*Starling noises are many and varied, they include:- warbles, clacks, high pitched squeals, whistles, clicks, squeaks, high trills, clacking and rattling of bills and much mimicry. Aggressively they have a scream like call.

They can appear aggressive because they are noisy birds, pushing and shoving not only each other, but also other birds. They are definitely aggressive when it comes to nesting, they nest in holes which can be quite small as, on finding a nesting hole if it is already occupied the starling will not hesitate to destroy the eggs and/or any young, in order to take over the nest. Their nests are made from twigs, grass, old leaves, feathers, plant pieces and any other debris they can find. Starlings have up to 3 clutches of between 4 and 9 eggs per year, they are pale blue, shiny and smooth. they are incubated for 12- 15 days and fledge after 20-22 days. Most starlings die in their first year, others will live a lot longer, the oldest known wild starling lived for 15 years.

Starlings are omnivores, and will eat amongst other things; seeds, fruit, insects, worms, beetles, slugs and any food put on the ground or bird table.

Immigrants from Poland, Finland and Scandinavia come here in the winter, they join up with our flocks and form huge flocks many thousands strong. In the evening they perform the most amazing aerial demonstrations known as murmurations, which are quite awe inspiring and many people gather to watch them.

Duck and drakes

During the last week the ducks came back, three again this year, two drakes and one duck. The males are mallards, but I'm not sure what type of duck the female is, she does not look like a typical female mallard. I have looked through hundreds of female duck pictures and found two similar to her, the first was described as an interbred duck, the other a campbell khaki duck, I still don't know what type she really is. She has the body shape of a mallard, except that it is slightly larger, and is in shades of beige and light brown, the tail and wing ends are creamy white. There is a stripe across the wing the same as a mallard has, except that it is mid to dark brown, with a white stripe either side.

One of the males is welcome and accepted by the female, while the other is just tolerated and lives on the fringes of the other two's existence, if he dares to try eating with them the preferred male will attack him. Sometimes when the other two are asleep, he will creep close to the female and settle himself down to sleep. Should she wake up and find him there, she lowers her head, stretches her neck and continually pokes him with her beak, driving him back and soon away

Occasionally when the other male is asleep, he manages to mate with the female, of course the preferred male hears what is going on, wakes up and makes haste to rescue his partner by attacking his competitor.

Perhaps the only time the two drakes are united is when marauding males fly into the garden to mate with the female, then they are as one when they rush to save the female. As soon as things settle back to normal, the unwelcome drake of the pair, knows his place and again moves away to the outskirts of their relationship.

Sometimes he forgets his place in the relationship and instead of keeping his distance, wanders up toward the female, whereupon the beady- eyed favoured drake on spotting the situation, rushes at his competitor neck outstretched and parallel to the ground, beak low and open, but before contact can be made the under dog turns tail and runs.

Interestingly once again they are spending time on the roof as they did last year.

P.S. Mallards are dabbling ducks as opposed to diving ducks.

Vixen and missing dog fox

The dog fox has still not shown up, I fear he has been killed on a nearby road, I know it was not on our lane or we would have seen him. I can still think of no reason why he would not continue to come for food every evening.

Instead the vixen now leaves the den and comes for food herself. She no longer leisurely sits or lays down to eat, but stands and gobbles the food down very fast, before hurrying back to her cubs.

The nights when her mate did not turn up with food must have been an anxious and hungry time for her, although concerned for the dog fox I am relieved to see the vixen feeding.

Fox den

Came across the fox den today by chance, interestingly it was a hole made by the badger, and like the other entrances to the badger sett, while it was the badger's hole it was clean and tidy. The fox has taken it over and it is now littered all around with hundreds of pigeon feathers.