A Trip to the Mill Pond



Boats

Just for a short half-hour walk to break up the day, we (me and dad) walked round the Emsworth Mill Pond. One more opportunity to see some great birds! I took some bird-seed in an old ice-cream tub (makes a change from bread for the waterfowl doesn't it?) and what good that was! Near the end of the walk, virtually every bird on the Pond (it's more of a Lake really!) was gathered round one couple with a bag of stale bread. Their bread ran out, so the fowl all moved accross to our side. But they all paddled over to another couple with food for them. That food ran out and they finally gathered round us.


Swan-Fest!

 They looked much happier eating proper grain that stale crusts! Almost half of tis enormous gathering were Mute Swans. The rest were mainly Mallards, drakes as well as ducks, plus some Coots and Moorhens who were resting on the banks who joined in at the last minute. Furter back, by the boats, were a strange pair. A Mute Swan, seeming not to want to be with the others, was being surprisingly "chummy" with The Lone Canadian Goose, the only goose on the pond.



The Lone Canadian Goose

 I fed them and moved on. AWWW! It was quite a good walk with some quite good birds. A Coot exploding out of a mallow clump was quite funny. I sensed that there was a Mallard in there for some reason, and I wasn't far off! Well, a good reason to make an entry on the blog anyway! Good Birding!