What news? Well the moorhen chicks were out and about along the edge of the canal at Greenhill today. There were 7, 1 died this morning. Last night when I was down I saw that there were actual 2 surviving juveniles from the first brood. This morning, one of them was helping out, feeding the youngsters and standing guard. The other juvenile thought it was a great opportunity to get in some free food. The adults would come for food, take it to the juvenile who was supposed to take it to the chicks. Once the adult saw the second juvenile was eating it himself, it got short shift.
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| Photos by AnnMackieMiller: copyright 2011 The adult moorhen gives food to the juvenile who takes it to the chicks |
It is interesting to see that now that the mating season is done for the geese, they are back to congregating together. Geese are naturally gregarious and it is only when they are mating that they split off into couples or triples. Now most of the youngsters are almost full grown they are in larger groups. It only makes sense when there are predators around. In the photo below you see that the Chinese goose and her beta female and male have been joined with at least 2 other adults.
And they are all grazing and resting together high in the field. If you watch you will notice there are always a couple standing guard.Further along the canal, the Canada geese families were back at the midden heap WAY along the canal from Greenhill.
The little white duck of last year that had the big family is down to 2 ducklings but they are the yellow - soon-to-be white ones and they are getting quite big.
and the little black mallard is surviving - the only one of his brood.
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| Bird Photography by AnnMackieMiller: copyright 2011 'Black Mallard Duckling' |
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| Photography by AnnMackieMiller: copyright 2011 Goslings from a Chinese Goose and an Embden Goose |
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