Some sunshine at last

At last we have had some sunshine over the weekend. When the sun did shine it was pleasantly warm and it has worked its magic on the trees and flowers.  The magnolia tree in our island's communal garden would normally have finished flowering by now but its buds are just opening now.  Two days ago the marsh marigold in my pond had tightly closed buds but in two days has flowered.  There were bees and butterflies enjoying the nectar from tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and the divinely scented daphne odora in my garden.  What a difference sunshine makes.

 Marsh marigold in my pond

The spring weather has brought islanders out from a long hibernation.  Gardening has been on the minds of some.  Unfortunately, rather than work with nature they choose April to aggressively cut back tons of foliage and hedging, inevitably disturbing nesting birds in their desire to tidy everything up.  At our end of the island there will be one less brood of songbirds and probably a number of smaller nesting birds made homeless.  How apposite!

Thin sunshine on the river this morning

Our  nesting duck is being attacked in the nestbox every morning by a randy drake.  So far the eggs haven't been broken, which is amazing considering the struggle she puts up.  Today she's been driven off twice but has returned a third time and I just hope she is left in peace this time.  I spoke too soon - she has just been driven off again.  Perhaps she will have to abandon the nest which is sad but, now that the drake has discovered her lair he will attack her every day and there's nothing we can do to protect her. 

Hidden camera shows duck in her nest box

We have a camera in the nest box which links with our television so that we are able to watch what is going on inside the nest.  This morning when I turned on 'duck TV' madam was already in the box and resting comfortably. Today she wasn't attacked by a rival male mallard so she had time to make herself comfortable although there was a fair amount of shifting around and rolling of the eggs.

Our mallard viewed through the TV 

Over the years we have seen quite a few ducks nest in our boxes and helped them, when necessary, to launch their ducklings when they nest on the garden deck.  Normally we only see what goes on from the outside looking in so it is fascinating to watch the duck from the inside of the nest.  I was surprised at how restless she was for the hour that I watched her this morning, stretching her neck outside the box on a regular basis.

One of the eggs is exposed for a while

The girl prepares to leave the box 

After carefully covering all 5 eggs our girl starts to head out of the box.  She came round to the plank for a quick breakfast of wheat and then was joined by her drake.

Today was partly sunny in the morning but has clouded over now and the breeze is picking up.  Apparently gale force winds are forecast for tonight and possibly part of tomorrow in the south.  Fortunately, though, it has only drizzled a little and we haven't had the monsoon like downpours of yesterday.

Four eggs

Because the weather has been so grey and drab for much of the year, which means that the light is not ideal for well lit, attractive images of wildlife, it has meant that I have updated my blog infrequently.  By trying to maintain a 'photo led' blog, however, I am restricting myself from recording what has been happening on the Thames more regularly and so I have decided to write more often and add images when I have suitable ones.

It's another wet and grey morning here and it has rained very heavily during the night. The river is so much quieter at the moment, no doubt because most female water birds are nest building or laying eggs first thing. There aren't even many male partners hanging around which is unusual.  No doubt, as the season progresses, things will change.

Another egg laid today

This morning, when I turned on 'duck TV' our female mallard was sitting quietly in the nestbox and seemed quite relaxed.  When I next glanced at the screen I noticed that her breathing had changed and that her muscles were contracting and relaxing rather rapidly.  After a couple of minutes she seemed to relax fully again but her rest was soon disturbed by a rival drake.  He climbed into the box and attacked her and she was forced to fly off, exposing four eggs.  She hasn't been back but he has twice inspected the box and seems to be trying to persuade his own female mallard, a much paler duck, to use one of the two nest boxes.  We shall have to see what happens tomorrow morning and, if possible, I shall keep  watch but, in the end, Nature has to take its course and the current female will be attacked on a regular basis I fear.

A sunset in early April

We have been lucky enough to see some sunshine recently but once again the skies are overcast and today it has been raining hard with a few periods of dry but overcast skies.  The April showers seem to be less of the showers and more of persistent rain.  Will the weather ever improve?

A Never Ending Winter

 Little Grebe

It has been one of the coldest Spring seasons on record and Easter Sunday was, over most of the UK, the coldest for many years with snow falling across much of Britain.  The sun seems to have deserted these shores so Spring plants and flowers are reluctant to brighten up the landscape.  One of the few benefits is that I have seen more of the secretive water bird, the little grebe.  Because of all the rain that has fallen since May last year, the river has been in spate for many months and has only recently returned to normal flow.  River traffic has been limited to essential journeys only and the water birds, including the more powerful swans, have struggled against the flow to swim upstream.  Consequently, a little grebe (pictured above) took refuge from the flow in front of our home and spent several hours fishing and then grooming.  It was a pleasure to watch such a beautiful, delicate, duckling size bird at such close quarters.

 Cormorant on the hunt

Fewer cormorants have been about over the winter period, perhaps because it is more difficult for them to fish when there is such a strong current? No doubt they have found less turbulent parts of the river to dive for fish.

The "exotics" fight

In spite of the persistently cold weather the ducks know that Spring is in the air.  Every morning we have had up to ten pairs of mandarin ducks and one pair of wood ducks turn up for breakfast.  In the evening the same exotic birds put on an amazing performance before finally dining on the wheat they seem to love.  For about an hour they show off and posture, displaying their feathers to advantage and trying to impress the rather indifferent females.  This behaviour continued for several weeks but then it all changed when many of the female mandarins had chosen their partners and there was just one female being courted by at least seven mandarins and the wood duck.  Because the female wood duck looks so similar to a female mandarin duck I have been unable to tell whether the mandarins were after the female wood duck or whether the wood duck just fancied his chances with a female mandarin.  My instinct is that the mandarins were after the only female wood duck. The aerial displays were amazing and the ducks were more focused on flirting than on food but it has all suddenly stopped and since the weekend only a few pairs of mandarins are regular visitors.

 

Wood duck warns off a determined mandarin

The wood duck was less swift on the wing than the mandarins but he was more than a match when it came to seeing off his rivals on water.  His strange vocal call, which sounds a little like static electricity, could be heard above all the burping and whistling sounds made by the male mandarins.

 Mandarin displaying his fine feathers

Most of the displaying and flirting was performed on a neighbour's boat with up to 11 exotics lined up along the rim of the boat while most of the females ignored them.  The one above was wiser and used our plank to show off to his 'intended'.

 Poor old boy

For months we have watched this once proud mandarin deteriorate in health and mobility and we think he may have died during the most recent cold spell.  He became so tame in his need for food that he would stand on the table and wait for me to put food out for him without flying off when I approached.  He chose not to go too far away from the source of regular food and spent a lot of time resting on the boat next door.  He found it difficult to walk because he would stand on one of his own feet and then stumble and he was bullied and chased off by other mandarins but I like to think that we looked after him as much as possible.

 Long-tailed tit on feeder

There have been long-tailed tits on the island for some years though they have rarely visited our garden before now but at last we have at least five turning up regularly to enjoy the fatballs and peanuts.  During December and January we also enjoyed the company of a grey wagtail which spent hours in the garden each day, especially once it discovered the mealworms we were putting down for the blackbirds, robins and dunnocks.  The wagtail would eat its fill and then stand by the stash of mealworms as if to guard them from other birds.  Now, all of a sudden, some starlings have discovered them too and, as they are greedy birds, not many mealworms are left for the wagtail and the other ground feeding birds.

 Nest hunt

Two eggs were laid in one of our duck nest boxes in February and then there was no more activity for two months but, in the last week the ducks are searching for nest sites and one box in particular, the one with the eggs,  has been visited by various female (and male) mallards, several pairs of mandarins, a moorhen and some tufted ducks.  The other box is also checked out but this one seems to appeal to the ducks more.  Dave put a camera inside yesterday and this morning we were amazed to see a female mallard sitting quietly inside the box with two eggs until she was chased off by a rival's drake.  'Duck TV' should be fun if a female is able to make the nest her own without being attacked by rival drakes.

After all the rain, the snow!

 Snowfall on Taggs Island

Yesterday we had our first significant snowfall of the winter and it certainly transformed the landscape.  After what seems like non-stop rainfall last year and early into 2013 we have at last seen some sunny days and then, I'm delighted to say, snow!  I just love it.

Something really strange happened this morning.  One of an islander's Bengal cats was crouched by our patio door ready to pounce on any ducks or birds foolish enough to fly onto the deck where I normally feed them.  I ignored it for a few minutes as there was no food out to attract any ducks and went to feed the ducks on a plank by the front door where they were safe from the cat. Because the deck was so cold and icy it made a loud cracking sound as I walked on it which, presumably, startled the cat.  I think it must have tried to jump from our deck to next door's but slipped on the ice.  I heard a splash and rushed round the corner to see what had happened.  The cat was in the river, yowling and looking shocked, but it was unable to climb out onto either deck because the hulls are fibre glass and too steep.  I tried to lean down and help it out but it was panicking.  I ran for the net but fortunately it managed to swim towards our garden and got its claws into the wooden beam that caps our camp shedding. A bedraggled and mortified moggy slunk off in a hurry and I though I tried to check whether it was okay it high-tailed it back to the other end of the island.

  Mandarin duck in the snow

The snowflakes were quite small at the start of the day but became larger and more impressive later on when I was in a meeting and unable to take photographs.  The sky was overcast and laden with snow so the male mandarin duck brightened up the scene.

 Mr. & Mrs. wood duck

A pair of wood ducks have been flying over from Bushy Park twice a day with a group of eight or so mandarin ducks. I think there may be a lone wood duck too on occasions but I can't be sure. I had a virus over Christmas and New Year and wasn't feeding the ducks regularly and most of the exotic ones stopped visiting.  There's gratitude for you!  One elderly female mandarin duck remained and hung around most days and eventually a male returned but it was only when the temperatures plummeted that the Bushy Park brigade returned to brighten up the feeding station.

  The male wood duck in all its glory

If you click on this image to enlarge it you will see just how fabulous the wood duck's plumage is in all its subtle and not so subtle colours.  His partner looks very similar to any of the female mandarins that I find it almost impossible to tell them apart.  She appears to be a fraction smaller when you see her next to a female mandarin.

When the mornings were really cold and frosty I was surprised to see that the wood duck took to feeding close to our front door as well as on the riverside deck where he normally goes.

It's been interesting to observe the behaviour of the exotic ducks.  A pair of mandarins have taken a particular dislike to a pair of mallards and behave aggressively towards them, bullying them so that they end up skulking beside the hull of the neighbour's dinghy.  If the drake tries to attack the mandarins the wood ducks join forces with the mandarins to give them support!  I've seen that happen twice in the past few days.  The wood duck is very vocal and mutters a lot of the time when he isn't displaying.  He makes a strange rasping sound which isn't at all melodic.  Mandarin males make deep grunting noises when they are displaying which sound almost hollow.

  A welcome visitor

I love little grebes and they never cease to amaze me when I see just how small they are.  They are  secretive most of the time, certainly on this stretch of the Thames, so it's been lovely to watch one, sometimes a pair of them, flitting from one side of the river to the other and heading both up and downstream.  They were around for about a week but I haven't spotted any since.

What I have had the pleasure of glimpsing from time to time is a kingfisher.  One rested on the handrails of our walkway for several minutes a few weeks ago and I've seen one three times in the last five days crossing either from our side to the far bank or vice versa.  On Sunday one flew straight out from our garden, heading downstream, and I haven't seen any of our fish in the pond since!  As three of them are very pale gold and small I'm wondering whether they are now history.  Time will tell.

  Male red-crested pochard

As soon as the weather turned cold he returned after months of absence.  He hung around a lot last summer with a pair of pochards and is recognizable by the damaged upper beak that has a chunk out of it.  He, too, adds a welcome splash of colour to the uniform grey skies of overcast days.

 Mr. Pochard on the feeding plank

Now that he's back the pochard spends most of the day here.  I wonder whether the pair that also turn up with him during the spring and summer months will be back later this year.

 Frost on the towpath

After so much rain the frosty mornings were a welcome change and finally the snow came.  The forecast is for more snow tomorrow but I think the temperatures improve after that during the week.  What a shame. 

 Similar view taken at sunset

  Early sun on trees

When the skies are clear at sunrise the colour of first light on the trees upstream is fabulous.  Here you can see the white duck contingent making their way downstream for breakfast here.  The big fat white female duck now 'favours' a large white male duck as her main escort but has at least two other white male ducks and a 'stretch limo' grey duck in tow.  I've nicknamed the team 'gobble and go' as she arrives with the boys, quacks to get my attention, they all 'hoover up' as much wheat as they can get and then head straight back upstream.

A wood duck comes visiting

It's been wet for much of the year in the UK and too many people are even now facing the prospect of their homes being flooded.  The river here is very high and flowing fast - pretty much in spate.  Fortunately the Environment Agency and the lock keepers are controlling the volume of water well but it's unsafe for rowers to be out in these conditions and most boat owners only take their boats out on the river if they have to.  Fortunately, there have been a few bright days in London to alleviate the wet and stormy weather.

One of the rare bright mornings last week

We heard sad news this morning for two boat owners downstream from us.  With all the rain and the concerns over flooding, two boats on Ash Island caught fire early this morning.  One sunk and the other is a burnt wreck but fortunately no one was injured.

A male wood duck

This handsome bird and his partner have joined up with a pair of mandarin ducks and fly here twice a day from Bushy Park for breakfast and dinner.  He is quite aggressive with most of the other ducks, including other mandarin ducks, and is very vocal.  Even the thug of a pigeon thinks twice about beating him up!  It's incredibly colourful here when the Busy Park exotic ducks grace our deck and garden.  Usually 3 or 4 pairs of mandarins turn up with a couple of spare males and now the wood ducks have joined the throng.  An old and arthritic mandarin male still visits most days but he is way down in the pecking order and has to wait his turn.  About a week ago he could hardly stand and, when he didn't visit for several days, I thought he must have died but he's back and seems to have recovered a little now.

Four male 'mandies' on their favourite feeding station

Some of the mandarin ducks prefer to feed from the deck and others insist on being fed on the table.  The more dominant males are incredible to watch.  When one of the weaker male mandies is feeding they will either land on its back and humiliate him or fly at an angle and kick it off the table with one of their webbed feet!  Mind you, the pigeon is just as aggressive with all the ducks and sometimes drives them off the table or deck by sideways kicking them or striking them with one of his wings. Unfortunately this picture was taken through the French windows so it's not as sharp as I would have liked it to be.

Swapping the Thames for beautiful British Columbia

We've been on holiday for some time and therefore have no new images of local wildlife to show.  Instead, since photographing wildlife is my passion, I thought I'd showcase a small selection of images taken while in Canada.  It would be difficult to describe, without resorting to superlatives, the stunning scenery, beauty, vast open spaces and impressive wildlife that we enjoyed daily while there.  Alberta was wonderful and British Columbia rightly lives up to its title - Beautiful British Columbia.

With the exception of a couple of days we were blessed with the sunniest and warmest autumn weather since records began.  The night skies were incredible because there was no light pollution and the silence was profound.  Part of the holiday, shared with three good friends, involved an eight day private charter through a small section of the Inside Passage.

My main objective was to see the Kermode (Spirit) Bear, a rare white subspecies of the black bear.  We had also hoped to see a wolf in the wild and whales and sea otters were also on our wish list.  Years ago we drove the Alaska Highway and were fortunate enough to see dozens of grizzly bears at close quarters but we never saw any black bears so they, too, were on our list.  We saw everything and more and had the holiday of a lifetime.  Something tells me that this won't be our last visit to Canada where we met with nothing but courtesy, kindness and exhilarating experiences.

Humpback whales in the distance

We'd been promised whales and we were not disappointed!  These humpbacks were in the process of bubble net feeding and, as we got closer to them, we could see the circle of bubbles rising to the surface of the water just before the whales rose up with gaping mouths to 'catch' the fish they'd herded into their circle of bubbles.

Whale rises up to feed within its circle of bubbles

One of the two humpbacks can be seen above within the bubble circle the pair created.  We watched them hunt like this for about half an hour, spouting, diving, blowing bubbles and then lunging up through the school of fish trapped within the circle to take their fill.

Whale with its jaws wide open to filter the fish

The tails of two humpback whales

Before the whales brought the show to an end they swam under our 54ft boat and then gave us a farewell wave of their tales.  In addition to their magnificent performance they also left us with more than a whiff of whale breath, a pungent smell of stale fish, better remembered rather than bottled!

Just one example of the beauty surrounding us

The scenery really is breathtaking, even during the two days of typical rainforest weather - dark clouds and swirling mists rather than warm sunshine and clear blue skies.  I have never seen so many waterfalls, many of them dramatic, and while we were moored the only sounds were natural ones, the torrent of a waterfall, the sound of water lapping the hull, the high pitched sound made by eagles, the warning calls of ravens or the blowing of nearby humpback whales.

A lazy seal refuses to budge from the comfort of his haul out rocks

We saw plenty of seals, most of which seemed quite curious about us and kept us under observation but didn't get too close to our boat.  This one just took us in his stride, not bothering to take to the water like the majority of them.  We were even fortunate enough to see several sea otters.  They were hunted for their valuable fur and very few remained but now, at last, a few are returning to these waters.

An immature bald eage

We didn't see as many eagles as we'd expected to but we had been spoiled, some years back, when we visited Haines, Alaska, during the fall and saw large numbers of them enjoying a 'salmon fest' following the return of the salmon to their spawning grounds.  Here, an immature bald eagle poses on a log close to an inlet where salmon were waiting for their chance to travel upstream to spawn.  In the background is one of the many waterfalls we saw during our eight day passage.

Kermode bear

More than anything I had hoped to catch a glimpse of a spirit bear and we were thrilled when one suddenly appeared across the river from us on a VERY wet Sunday.  Nothing could dampen our spirits after our first sighting, only twenty minutes after arriving at the river bank, and we waited (in vain) another seven hours in the cold and wet in the hope of seeing other bears, including the much more common black ones.  It was worth the discomfort and we still had fun chatting in whispers among ourselves, but as the river rose with the sheer volume of rainwater, I realised that the water had risen too high for a bear to be able to wade in and catch fish.  We did, however, enjoy watching dippers in the calmer waters at the edge, and a pine marten also put in a brief appearance.

A young male grizzly bear heads our way

Later in the trip we reached grizzly country and were also fortunate enough to see a female black bear with three young cubs.  The young grizzly, above, came almost too close for comfort while we were in our zodiac watching the 'interplay' between a grizzly mum with three cubs, across the water from us, and this young bear.  He showed a great deal of interest in the female and kept looking wistfully in her direction but she saw him only as a threat to her cubs.  When he attempted to swim across to her she 'charged' him and sent him scurrying.

Young grizzly cub enjoys a rest while his mum seeks out more salmon

This was one of two cubs that wandered along the shoreline with their mum and picked up scraps of dead/dying salmon.  I loved the way he just sat on the log having a gentle scratch.  Later on we saw a mother with a much smaller cub.  She tried to get it to swim across to where the salmon were more prolific but it couldn't keep up with her and was struggling against the tide and crying out in distress so, in the end, she swam back to it and they returned to shore.

A tender moment between a mother grizzly and one of her cubs

We saw so much interaction between a number of different grizzly families and lone males.  The mothers were nearly always cautious and would give ground rather than risk confrontation.  I watched one cub having a game with its mum, standing up on its hind legs and batting her with its paws.  She responded by gently nuzzling it and mock biting its shoulder.

To be surrounded by these magnificent creatures and to see so many other truly awesome sights was an immense pleasure and we shall always remember these experiences.  Even the fleeting glimpse of a lone wolf made an impression and we felt privileged to witness nature in such unspoilt surroundings.  We ended our trip with three days of 'rehabilitation to civilisation' in Vancouver, a beautiful, vibrant city.  The Syliva Hotel was the perfect place to end a perfect holiday.