A Fine Pair of Mandarin Ducks

 The first pair of mandarin ducks visit us

Every Spring mandarin ducks visit our garden.  Usually it starts with one pair and then, after several days, another pair turns up until we have up to seven pairs and a few spares.  Last year, for the first time, a wood duck joined them to add even more colour to our local wildfowl visitors.

The male begins to raise his crest in courtship

We've had several fleeting visits from another pair this week but they were still partially in moult and rather sad looking specimens.  They were also very nervous whereas this pair were intrepid and attacked the mallards in order to take over the plank.  I have a feeling that they'll be back on a regular basis from now on and, no doubt, bring some of their friends!

It's been another lovely day after a rather grey start and tomorrow promises to be sunny all day.  It was 18C on the garden deck this afternoon!  I think we'll take our boat out for a short trip up river tomorrow.

Another fine afternoon

 A fine evening sky in March

After a dull, grey morning with a few spots of rain, the skies cleared and the sun shone once again helping temperatures to rise to around 16C.  Above is a picture of the early evening sky. 

Perhaps the uncompromising start to the day had an effect on the ducks because there was little activity around the nest boxes this morning and we saw neither the hybrid pair nor Ring Neck and her drake until much later when the sun broke through.

Ring Neck takes off 

By late afternoon all four pairs of mallards had turned up but weren't showing much interest in the nesting boxes. While Ring Neck was having a quiet moment with her mate on the plank in the early evening, Lonely and her partner flew in and chased her away (see above).

Meanwhile, the Blue Tits were also less active around their nest boxes this morning but I spotted one, later in the day, taking a great interest in one of the boxes but not the one with the camera!  Time will tell but it wouldn't surprise me to find that the chosen nest will be the one without the intrusion of a camera!

Life after the floods

View of the flooded garden

As you can see from the picture above, the river flooded the entire garden and stopped just short of the door to the therapy room.  We had to use a series of planks, ladders and supports to get off our boat and out through the car port which was also under water. Fortunately the water level stopped just short of our electricity box at the top of the car port.  The gas meter toppled over and was completely submerged but continued to supply us with gas for the central heating and cooker so we were very lucky!

A thriving clematis 

In spite of being under water for weeks the garden plants have shown amazing resilience.  My mimosa is in full flower and the citrus trees have all survived, despite the fact that the greenhouse was blown apart in the December gales. Luckily I had covered them with fleece. The clematis (above) is in full bloom and forms a fabulous scented canopy over the entire boundary between us and our neighbour.

We have spent the last couple of days clearing as much as possible of the silt and debris from the garden and Dave pressure hosed the patio so it looks a lot better!  At least the weather has been dry and sunny which makes a welcome change and there's a promise of more dry weather to come.

The ducks have been chasing each other far more frequently today, at least three pairs investigated the nest boxes and one female mallard checked out our garden deck box, too.

Dave set up the bird box camera yesterday and this morning we saw a Blue Tit enter the box twice. We hadn't realised that the camera recorded sound, too, so we were surprised to hear the bird's high pitched call as it entered the box.

Today I held a Blue Tit

Injured Blue Tit

Today I found a Blue Tit in our carport on the ground.  It appeared to be stunned and, as I approached, it made no attempt to fly off.  I was able to pick it up and hold it.  From what I could tell, it seemed to be blind in one eye so it may have flown into something and hurt itself. I held it and stroked it for several minutes and then took it to a nearby fig tree so that I could encourage it to fly to safety. It was so calm and chirpy in the palm of my hand but I felt very relieved when it took off. I really hope that, in spite of a damaged eye, it will survive.

After the trauma

Fortunately, the bird seemed none the worse for its accident and, after resting for a few more minutes it flew to the bird table for a sunflower heart.

Female mallard checking out nest box

The ducks have shown a great deal of interest in the two riverside nest boxes and the rivalry is intense. At the moment the main contenders are the mallard with a hybrid male and this female (pictured above) and her pure mallard mate.  A duck we've nicknamed Lonely is also a contender whereas the one we call Ringneck seems to have been driven off.  The female (above) spent much of the morning investigating both boxes and was back again this afternoon.

The dominant drake

It would seem that this drake has the edge over the hybrid male and his mate. They have spent much of the morning and some of the late afternoon at the nest boxes. 

Today has been a lovely, sunny day which makes a change from most of the previous days.  The forecast tonight is for settled and warm weather for a while - what a welcome prospect!

I've started clearing the debris in the garden - there's a lot of work to do, but I keep reminding myself of what the people in the Somerset Levels and elsewhere are still suffering because of the floods.  At least the flood water has 'fertilised' our garden and we can now get on with life!

Spring sunshine, dark clouds, huge hailstones and ice at night!

Blue Tit in early morning sunshine

Spring is definitely in the air and a pair of Blue Tits are regularly looking at the nesting box Dave prepared at the weekend.  The early morning and late afternoon birdsong is delightful and the garden is full of Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long Tailed Tits using the feeders. There are plenty of Dunnocks, too, a pair of Robins, a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, too many Wood Pigeons and far too many Parakeets!

A Mallard and her hybrid mate lay claim to one of the nest boxes

Four pairs of mallards are showing great interest in the two riverside nesting boxes and this pair appear to be the dominant pair.  We have two other boxes on the top deck and hope that a pair will nest there too as it is safe from both foxes and mink.  

For the first time in ages, a pair of Mandarin Ducks flew in from the park yesterday to check out the area again.  Usually, from Spring through to late Autumn we have at least 5 pairs visiting the garden.

Storm clouds lift just before sunset

Yesterday's weather was pretty dramatic yet again.  When the sun shone it was warm but the rain was torrential and the hailstones thundered off our roof, boat cover and the ducks' backs!  When will we return to a more normal and typical weather pattern?  The intensity of the rain when it falls these days is far greater than it used to be and all too regular.  Let's hope that we finally get some settled, gentle and warm Spring weather very soon.

More rain!

I only have one image  for today as a record of the floods during February 2014, though not showing them at their worst!

The view from our home across Hurst Meadows in mid February

For the record, today is yet another day with exceptionally strong winds from the afternoon onwards with very heavy cloudbursts this evening.  The ground is already soaked since the floods and it has rained all too regularly since the river returned to normal levels.

This picture shows how the river flooded Hurst Park and Hurst Meadows but doesn't show just how far the river actually spread across both sides of our island.

Today started with fine weather and we watched a fourth Mallard pair investigate our duck nesting boxes.  Dave checked out the garden bird nest boxes as there has been some tentative activity in our carport with some Blue Tits are already showing signs of checking out their territory.  It won't be too long before some Blue Tits and maybe a Robin decide to start nest building.

We've had a pair of Pigeons (not Wood Pigeons)  raiding our feeders recently and the Wood Pigeons aren't impressed with the newcomers.  Nor am I as they are rapacious feeders and not scared of humans.

Today we saw three boats on the river which is a sign that the flow must be a little less dangerous.  After today's heavy downpours I wonder whether conditions will change again as we have to cope with what falls upstream of us, and that was more significant rainfall.  It's unusual to have so very little river traffic at this time of year. 

It's been a while!

It's been seven months since I posted the last Thames Nature Notes because of family matters. I had intended to start again in the new year but, since mid December the weather in South East England has been atrocious.

We have had the wettest winter since records began with extreme flooding.  Others, in South West England have suffered even more for months now, so we cannot complain, but we're glad that the river has now returned to normal levels and at last our garden is no longer under water.  In fact, the river engulfed our end of the island and there was river from the A308 bank as far as, and right across Hurst Meadows.  It was an unusual sight to see swans swimming down through our carport and around the garden before being swept across the river into the meadows way beyond.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining and, as far as we were concerned, in spite of some extremely worrying times, we had the joy of watching a Kingfisher take advantage of our underwater garden to catch breakfast, lunch and dinner!

 The Kingfisher waited patiently for signs of fish

Because the river was flowing so fast the Kingfisher found our submerged garden a perfect haven.  It spent hours on most days diving for fish, taking advantage of the many convenient perches around the garden.  My husband took this picture of the bird posing on the top of a ladder.  The river had risen higher than 4 ft and we had had to put in place a series of ladders and planks to enable us to get off our boat and out through the garden and carport.  Even beyond the carport the water was still deep enough to require us to wear wellies! 

 Fishing is a tiring business

While I was out one day, Dave was able to grab this shot through our kitchen window.  The Kingfisher had spent ages diving for little fish, with considerable success, and had just finished quite a sizeable one.  After preening his feathers he had a lovely stretch before heading home for the evening.

Our beautiful bird arrives for its morning snack

I was also able to spend a fair bit of time watching this magnificent bird.  The weather was too bad to do much else!  I was lucky enough to get this shot as he arrived for for his first meal of the day. Unfortunately, as the weather was dire for much of the time, we could only get grab shots through the kitchen window most of the time but there were a couple of days when the sun shone and we managed to take some pictures through an open upstairs window without distracting the Kingfisher.

Today is the first day of Spring and we have enjoyed sunshine, bird song, and watched a number of female mallards checking out the duck nesting boxes.  Tomorrow rain is forecast again but tomorrow is another day!