Psilos Bird Journal
Saturday April 19th 2008
     
"Thriving"
 
A quick visit today as my son wanted to see the mere. Weather not vey good, very dull and rather a cold wind. All the whoopers are gone and the water level is very low. In the last few days though Avocet numbers have really increased. A couple of dozen birds could be seen feeding from the Swan link hide and one bird came in really quite close. This is quite unusal as normally they only give distant views. Redshanks and Black tailed Godwit were also feeding nearby.
     

     
Found a mallard with 15 ducklings but boy did I wish there was more sun.


A quick trip around the collection showed some new ducks. Three pairs of Blue winged teal, a very beautiful duck.
 
 
and a very photogenic Demoiselle crane.
 
 
Out on swan lake the captive bewick swans were feeling frisky.
 
and a leucistic Tufted duck was found swimming around with other wild birds. This is not a hybrid bird but a bird that has an abnormal amount of white pigmentation in the feathers. Quite a striking and unusal bird.