Psilos Bird Journal
Friday May 12th 2006
     
"No room on the raft"
 
Once again I find myself sat on the spit on a beautifully warm spring day watching the terns. On the way in I was stopped twice by people wanting to chat about the birds on the lodge. It seems I have become a well known figure as I am the only one that goes up with a camera and people enjoy stopping me which is always wonderful as I love to hear peoples enthusiasm for the wildlife around us. Yesterday I heard a very sickening story of unbelieveable cruelty to a mute swan elsewhere and chatting with people here always reminds me that the thugs that butchered that poor bird are indeed in a minority.
     

     
Having arrived half an hour later means that it is now noon and the birds have gone to sleep in the midday sun. This is never an ideal time to watch or photograph birds but it is the time I have so I have to make the most of it. With the terns asleep I switch my attention to other birds on the lake. The first birds that I notice are the great crested grebes. I have seen the female for the last three days with young on her back but today for the first time I notice the chicks are in the water. Now I can see she has three but she is very wary, keeping her distance and never comes close enough for a decent photograph.
     
pied wagtail
 
Another wary bird is the pied wagtail. In some places they can be quite bold but here they are very timid. Sitting quietly a male hasnt noticed me as he flew in but he is too far away to photograph. So crawling on hands and knees trying to keep my body below the rise of the bank I move nearer. He is feeding by the waterline and I havent tricked him for a moment as he knows that I am there. He still isnt close enough for a good close up but I am not going to push it and waited to see if he will come closer to me. In the end he was having none of it and after only half a dozen shots he was off over the other side of the lake.
 
black headed gull
     
Today was a good day for bird flight shots. Numbers of black headed gulls were well up on yesterday and so I practised on those too. These birds can be a threat to terns but today they were keeping out of the way.

 
The crow is a bird I like to photograph as it is such a challenge. I watched several flying backwards and forwards across the lake but none came close until this bird was bold enough to fly right by me. Someone further down was obviously feeding the ducks and he certainly wasnt going to go without his share!
 
 
This trio of Mallard flying round and round also flew right by me....
 
 
The two brown hybrid/domestic mallards that are always around also came to see me. These are two males and are such wonderful characters.
 

The one bird that is the biggest threat to the tern is the grey heron. There is usually at least one bird around and in the winter I have often seen them sat on the tern raft. These birds are not tolerated in the least. My attention was first drawn to the arrival of this bird from the noise crows were making as they mobbed it. Very quickly the terns joined forces with three birds going out to mob it also. This time the vigilence of both bird species paid off. The heron landed briefly over the other side of the lake but having got no respite he eventually gave up and flew away.
 
Seeing off the heron was the only conflict the terns had to deal with that day. Shortly after noon the silence was broken by the alarm calls of many of the terns on the raft. On closer inspection I noticed that the object of their alarm was in fact another tern. For over twenty minutes this bird was chased, pecked and driven under the water by the other terns. For a while I couldnt understand why and then I counted the birds and found that now there were thirteen birds and this bird definatly wasnt welcome! I guess at six pairs the terns had decided that enough was enough and that there was no more room for any new terns that wanted to take up residence. This bird eventually gave up. I dont know if the bird moved on or whether he would be back again but for a good while afterwards I only counted twelve birds. Content that the threat was over the terns went back to sleep and I decided to go home.