Misty and mellow scenes on the river

Mute swan in early morning mist

We've had some fabulous morning mists and late autumn sunshine to brighten the days as the nights draw in and daylight hours decrease. Temperatures fluctuate considerably with sharp frosts some mornings and warm, balmy days at other times. The leaves are changing colour dramatically, now, and Bushy Park is ablaze with colour. The (deer) rut is almost over but I watched two young roe bucks lock antlers in earnest today while a third one accompanied their action with a series of grunts.

Rowers launch their skiffs at Molesey Boat Club

Mute swan sets off after Bidou

The dominant mute swans are still patrolling this stretch vigorously and do not tolerate Bidou's presence. The male always drives her away but she bides her time and sneaks back after they've moved on. At least I haven't seen them fly after her which they do when they spot another mute swan in the area.

Mallard drake in all his glory

The drakes have all regained their definitive plumage, as have the mandarin ducks, but the grebes remain in eclipse for the winter. There's a huge amount of 'whistle/grunt' activity going on among the mallards as they continue to pair off. It never fails to make me smile.

Bright-eyed, young male tufted duck

Coot poses for a picture

A pair of aggressive coots frequent our feeding station and beat up most of the other waterbirds. The other day a pair of great crested grebes tried to 'haul out' on the same wide platform but the coots would have none of it and saw them off. When they do get the platform to themselves it's amazing to see the grebes standing (almost) upright. They're ungainly on land but they seem to like using our plank to relax on and for grooming.

This swan would fight his own shadow if he didn't have an interloper to see off!

Race day at Hampton Sailing Club

It's a colourful sight when all the sailing dinghy's are out in fine weather. Above is a picture of the race from a distance with Hampton Church in the background, downstream towards Molesely Lock.

Organised chaos as the dinghies negotiate the marker buoys

Female mallard with straw on her beak

This female has been showing a great deal of interest in both duck nesting boxes. I watch her and her partner waddle up and down the planks to the two boxes, apparently trying to decide which box will be best when Spring comes. Meanwhile Lonely, who likes to think she owns one of the boxes, shows enormous disapproval when any other female looks into 'her' box.

Lonely keeps a watchful eye on her 'preferred' nesting box

Male pochard

We hadn't seen the pochards for ages and then one day they suddenly appeared, stayed for several hours, then disappeared again. I haven't seen them since. We have had two young mandarin ducks hanging around in the chilly weather and I think they were last year's babies as they weren't the least nervous when I went outside to feed them. They were made most unwelcome by the regular pair of mandarin ducks, though, and I haven't seen them now for at least a week.

New kids on the block

Bidou's lonely

Bidou keeps calling out and we think she must be lonely as she now has no 'surrogate' family to tag along with. The family of mute swans appears to have been ousted from their territory by a pair of younger swans. It's been upsetting to watch the newcomers chase and attack the cygnets - we've managed to protect them a couple of times but don't always see the attacks happen. The cygnets can't fly yet so we do hope they are OK. Equally, we haven't seen either of the parents. We were called out to help one of them about 10 days ago - it had hidden behind a houseboat close to the weir and was finding it difficult to squeeze through the gap between the boat and freedom. The new swans aren't keen on having Bidou tag along with them so she's without friends at the moment.

Female mallard

Most of this year's ducklings are fully grown and starting to find a partner. Some of the drakes are still in partial eclipse but you can see their plumage beginning to change. At certain times of the day they all congregate in the middle of the river and 'check out' the talent, so there's plenty of 'showing off' by the males and 'beaking off' by the females. The drakes collectively emit a high pitched whistle while raising their heads and chests, then immediately make a deep grunting sound as they do the reverse and raise their tails. As the tails rise up they all stretch out their necks close to the water and swim manically around. Females who've already selected a partner 'beak off' at the hopeful drakes, quacking in a disapproving way, their beaks pointing at the rejected males while swimming away from them with the partner(s) of their choice.

A strange juxtaposition

I caught a glimpse of a swan with what seemed like unusual markings but when it approached I saw that it had a dark feather stuck to its white plumage.

The 'ugly duckling' is turning into a beautiful swan

Until recently, when the new arrivals started to patrol this stretch of the river, our family of mute swans were still together. Occasionally, the male cygnet would turn up ahead of the rest. The female always stayed with mum. Above you can see the male's plumage starting to change. The female, who was considerably smaller and much more friendly, had no white plumage showing.

Close-up of the male cygnet's wing feathers

Posing for the camera

I should imagine that the male cygnet was close to receiving flying lessons from mum and dad but we haven't had the joy of watching his first attempts as we've seen no sign of any of the family. I haven't been out in the boat recently but tomorrow we hope to have a look for them. There's a large 'non-breeding' flock of swans at Kingston, so perhaps our family have headed downstream.

The last image I took of the family

The two fat ladies

These lovely old girls have survived the season and turn up regularly for a helping of wheat. They like to be hand-fed once they've eaten a little from the communal plank - they're very well behaved and never fight each other. We know when they're around because they quack extremely loudly and we get no peace. As soon as the wheat hits the plank the decibel levels return to normal.

I've been in Sines, Portugal at its World Music Festival

It's that time of year when I disappear to Portugal for FMM Sines, the World Music Festival which is an annual event in the lovely town of Sines. Thames Nature Notes will return to normal soon!

Statue of Vasco da Gama next to the castle in Sines

Vasco da Gama was born in Sines and his statue overlooks the harbour, next to the old castle where he was born. Sines is an attractive coastal town half way between Lisbon and The Algarve. Every year the town holds a music festival celebrating world music, an impressive and friendly event in spectacular surroundings. Portugal hasn't been immune to the global recession and the festival, previously a 10-day event, was reduced to 5 days this year. The concerts were staged in two venues, one inside the castle walls and the other down by the beach.

One of the lovely sandy beaches near Sines

There are excellent beaches along this whole coastline which include vast stretches of white sand and areas with rock pools and coves. This part of the coastline between Sines and Porto Covo is close to one of my favourite beach-side restaurants, Trinca Espinhas.

Sines beach and the temporary stage which is set up for the festival

Early evening and late night concerts are held at the beach stage where the atmosphere is friendly and fun. Along the promenade there are stalls selling local food and drinks at sensible prices. Visitors can also find plenty of market stalls selling clothing, jewellery and other ethnic items.

Sines harbour

Nat King Cole En Espagnol

David Murray was one of the excellent artistes appearing on stage at the castle on the first night of the festival.

Daniel Melingo

Daniel Melingo was guest vocalist for three of the numbers performed by Nat King Cole En Espagnol.

Allyssa Lamb

Las Rubias del Norte is a seven piece combo fronted by two classically trained singers, Allyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst. The purity of their voices is ethereal, incorporating classical harmonies set to a latin beat.

Taylor Bergren-Crisman

Bass player, Taylor, on stage with Las Rubias del Norte.

Wimme

Wimme Saari, a Sámi joik singer from Finland, uses a traditional chant style with elements in common with Native American music. The combination of the band's use of instruments and Wimme's joik vocals produce elemental and haunting sounds.

Tapani Rinne

Tapani on clarinet is from the Finnish experimental band RinneRadio.

Yasmin Levy

Yasmin's distinctive and passionate voice combines Ladino and Flamenco cultures with her own unique blend of middle eastern words and sounds, "a musical reconciliation of history" as she puts it. Her voice is hypnotic, seductive and deeply emotional.

Yasmin and some of the band

Janick Martin

Janick played diatonic accordion with the Jacky Molard Quartet & Founé Diarra Trio during the Sines festival.

Founé Diarra Trio

Tom Greenhalgh and Jon Langford

The Mekons are a British Punk band, formed in the late 70's by a group of Leeds University art students. Eight members of the band were on stage in Sines.

Dorothée Hannequin

French vocalist and guitarist Dorothée taught herself to play the acoustic guitar in her mid-teens but only started to sing several years later.

The Rodeo's Jean Thevenin

Dan Kaufman

Guitarist Dan Kaufman with the band Barbez together combine such sounds as French musette, Argentine tango, post-war classical and pre-MTV punk.

Barbez's Pamelia Kurstin plays the theremin

Peter Hess, also with Barbez

Barbez

Sa Dingding

Colourful folk singer/songwriter Sa Dingding was born in Inner Mongolia. Her songs were originally influenced by the music of ethnic minorities which she encountered while living with her grandmother in her formative years.

Keyboard player with Sa Dingding

Lead singer with Tinariwen

Tinariwen is a band of musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. Their sound has its roots in West African music with a hint of 'the blues', though members of the band say they hadn't heard American blues music until they began touring on the European circuit.

Tinariwen

Tinariwen

Tinariwen

Lole Montoya

Lole Montoya, formerly part of Spanish musical duo Lole y Manuel, composed and performed innovative flamenco music in the vanguard of new flamenco. Perhaps influenced by her Algerian born mother, Lola's lovely voice combines traditional Spanish flamenco with Arabic rhythms and styles.

Guitarist with Lole Montoya

Kahiné Kuyaté from the Cheick Tidiane Seck band

On stage at Sines the Cheick Tidiane Seck band performed traditional and popular Malian music from the Manding-speaking region of West Africa.

Members of the Cheick Tidiane Seck band

Yéyé Kanté from the Cheick Tidiane Seck band

Fireworks as the band Staff Benda Bilili perform on stage at Sines Castle

Fireworks to celebrate the last night of the festival

Thousands of delighted fans enjoyed not only the eclectic mix of World Music but also the colourful spectacle of fireworks during Staff Benda Bilili's stage performance at Sines Castle.

The mystery of the duck eggs

We've had a number of surprises in the last few weeks, not the least being the appearance of a grass snake in the river. We saw unusual movement in the water while we were having lunch and spotted a grass snake swimming away from the direction of the coots' nest. We're unsure as to whether or not it took one of the eggs but the coots' eggs seem to have disappeared. The snake was later spotted by another islander who followed it in his boat until it disappeared behind the hull of Riverdream.

We are also intrigued as to which species of duck is the phantom egg layer in one of our riverside nesting boxes. There has been one egg in one of the boxes for a few weeks now and then one appeared in the other box. Meanwhile the young mandarin ducks were using the second box as a night time resting place. Last week there was a second egg in the box and then a third. We were away on Friday but returned to find a fourth egg in the box on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, the lone egg in the other box has disappeared. We still don't know which duck is nesting there. We've seen a tufted duck hanging around and occasionally wandering up into the box but there are also a number of mallards in the vicinity at present. The coot also uses the ramp to the box regularly and I've seen it climb up into the nest box. As the coot was responsible for removing all the straw bedding from both boxes to line its own nest, the box is now empty apart from a few dark downy feathers. To complicate matters further the crow has been showing interest in the boxes, too, and may have raided the box of its one egg. Alternatively, perhaps the grass snake took it?

Young tufted duck

A young tufted duck has been hanging around for the last few days. Yesterday it spent several hours sleeping on our plank and, though it is a little nervous, it seems to know that it will be safe on the plank. The coots, mallards and mandarin ducks keep chasing it away but it just dives out of harms way before they can peck it and then resurfaces and comes back when things have quietened down.

We had another surprise this week when Lonely turned up with three sizeable ducklings. She'd been coming for supper every day and I thought she might be nesting again but she's been smarter than that. She has obviously decided to keep her ducklings away from this part of the river until they are big enough to stand a chance against the many predators. Other ducks are also turning up with two and three week old ducklings. I've noticed at least three sets of mothers hanging around Garrick's Ait which is obviously a much safer environment for the young. We saw some young tufted ducks there recently and think that the youngster pictured above may be one of her brood. There was also a mallard with five babies who, now that her young are too large for the average predator, brings the kids down here for snacks.

Great crested grebe

The grebes are still around but most of the territorial fighting has stopped. It's amazing to see the size of some of the fish they manage to swallow - they must have huge necks and throats. On the subject of huge we saw an enormous carp leap clear of the water right in front of us the other day and I saw a repeat performance a couple of days ago. It isn't often that we see such large fish leap clean out of the water on the Thames but, when we lived in Belize, we often saw tarpon leaping and manta rays flying through the air.

Waterlily in my pond

My first flower of the season opened for a few days during the hot weather last week. There's another one on the way but, in the meantime, the watercress is taking over most of the pond and I shall have to harvest it today or there'll be no flow over the cascade. It's delicious in salads so we'll enjoy it for lunch.

Young mandarins with mum

This is a shot of the young mandarins several weeks ago. They are now almost indistinguishable from their mum and one of them is showing signs of independence. They are a little bit more wary of us now, which is probably a good thing as they are, after all, wild birds. Several other mandarin ducks turn up at the same time as the family but are driven off by mum and the youngsters. I can't tell whether either are males mandarins in moult or other females. There's no doubt as to the pecking order - mum and the kids rule the roost!