Birding In The Garden: AWWC (amazeballs)

Sorry it's been so long. The real day out was on 18th May!! Stupid me. Before the main post starts, because it is the breeding season (it's too late for birds to breed in them now but for next year) I will put my nesting-boxes poster up again:

No, I can't draw female Shovellers. DEAL WITH IT.

Here comes a bit of epicness; go there yourself to EXPERIENCE THE COMPLETE EPICNESS. The first thing is a drawing by me inspired by this place. There was not Whooper Swans there but I thought "Mute among Whoopers" sounds better than "Mute among Bewick's" (there was Bewick's Swans there) and plus I don't have a clue what the plural of Bewick's is. Whooper Swans make more noise than Bewick's as well so it adds to the whole graceful silent Mute theme.

"The Graceful Silence of the Mute among the Whoopers" by me! I think the Whooper in the right corner went particularly well.

I scanned it with the scanner and the colours will have been a bit different to the original which I no longer have because I put it with my late great-grandmother Mary, may she rest in peace. :-(

There is a poem by me to go with this drawing:

The Graceful Silence of the Mute among the Whoopers

Vibrant curling notes

Winding around the tongues of the Whoopers,

Suddenly out of the open bills fly

Out – and whoooooOOP! – curl, twist and coil

Out of the bill fly to summon more for the wedge*.

But out in the middle,

Passing through like royalty,

A Mute is silently going.

The Whoopers humbly back away to clear a path.

No noise, no curling notes,

No sound comes out from this bill.

Gracefully gliding through the water, bigger and sleeker

Than any Whooper could be.

A flock of swans is called a "wedge" did yo know? (that was a deliberate yo) I think I told you that before but WHO CARES?

Now, you may be wondering what place I am on about. I mentioned it on the last post. The Arundel Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre (WWT)!!!! Here are some of the wildfowl species there (that I can remember). There was so many and loads I did not even know existed.

Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) with the best Latin name ever for some reason.
Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba coscoroba) YES I KEEP MENTIONING THEM. DEAL WITH IT.
Rosybill aka Rosy-billed Pochard, Rosybill Duck (Netta peposaca)
Mandarin (Duck) (Aix galericulata)
Wood Duck aka Carolina Duck (Aix sponsa)
Magpie Goose (Anseranas semipalmata) Anseranas is Anser and Anas (goose and duck) stuck together because it is neither a goose nor a duck but somewhere in between! CLEVER.
Greater Scaup or just Scaup. North Americans call it the Bluebill (Aythya marila)
Harlequin Duck called by North Americans the Lords and Ladies Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus)
Falcated Teal aka Falcated Duck (Anas falcata)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera) Why don't they call the Blue-winged Teal that Latin name as cyanoptera means "blue-winged" in Latin?
Plus the inevitable Columba livia var. domestica, the Town Pigeon aka Feral Dove or Feral Pigeon.

Okay. The list will get too big so I will now show you some of the photos!

Mallard podgy couple

"I can haz grain?" Mallard duck

Trumpeter Swan on nest

Black-necked Swan

White Call-duck and Blue Duck (the White Call-duck is a breed of domestic Mallard and the Blue Duck is an actual species)

Falcated Teal

Rosybill

Feral Pigeon

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Tufted Duck

Eider

Rosybill

Wigeon washing (unexpected alliteration)

The inevitable Moorhen

Feral Pigeon photobomb! The duck is a Mallard

Pidge-Podge!

Eider

Mandarin drakes

Mallard

Mute Swan

Herring-gull (this is one of about five photos of the same bird in the same place, I love them so much!)

Wood Duck

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Goldeneye

Mute Swan

Scaup

weird pattern Feral Pigeon

Black-necked Swan

the White Call-duck again

There is this hut with lots of dried plants and things made with them in it. There are signs and labels telling you about the medicinal and other uses for the plants.