Herrings and Mussels

Having not been to Liden Lagoon for awhile, I thought I'd have a look and see what had happened to all that blanket weed that had covered almost the whole lagoon back in the Summer. I'm pleased to say it's all gone and having spoken to an angler fishing on the far bank, it hadn't effected the fishing, as he'd had a nice Bream in his keepnet.

At long last a weed-free lagoon

Around by the bungalows there was more evidence of Bryony in fruit and down by outlet there were a couple Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)  in berry as well.

A good crop of Guelder Rose fruit

Surprisingly there were no Grey Herons around the pool and there were very few Moorhen. Coot were just about everywhere and there were good numbers of Mallard. There were quite a few Tufted Duck with a lot of juveniles, which is always confusing, as at this age as you can never really tell if they are male or female. Counting them was hard enough anyway as they kept diving. In the end I was counting ripples as they dived. Eventually I came up with 52, though there could quite easily have been 60.

There were a few males that I could see in amongst the 50+ tufties.

The pen Mute Swan was with her 3 juveniles and seemed to be getting on okay, despite the fact that the cob died from its horrific injuries after two men let their dogs maul it to bits at the beginning of August. It will be interesting to see whether she chases the youngsters off or if another male arrives and starts courting her, drives them off himself.

An interesting observation today was watching a Herring Gull by the south island. Every now and then it would fly up and drop vertically into the water, before popping up to the surface with a Swan Mussel. The first time it did it, it brought up a stone. So it dropped it, paddled a few feet and then spotted a proper Mussel and did the same again. It flew up and dived down to get one. This time it got a good sized one and after paddling a few feet, took off, before landing on the rocks; where it dropped the Mussel, presumably to crack it. Unfortunately the Mussel bounced off the rock and into the water. As it thought about retrieving it, another adult Herring Gull landed on the rock next to it and the Mussel was forgotten about.

Having flown up and dived down to get a Swan Mussel, this Herring Gull realises it has a stone......

And releases it back into the water.............

So its up off the water............

And a vertical dive bomb down for another go.........

And up with the real thing............

A few paddles..........

And a few more, before taking off and.................

And landing on the rock.............

A quick look round before dropping it. Unfortunately it bounced straight into water.

As its mate lands to see what's going on, the Swan Mussel is forgotten about and sits a good 50 metres from where it was sitting quietly a few minutes earlier.

Birds Recorded: 4 Mute Swan (adult + 3 juv), 48+ Canada Geese, Mallard, 52+ Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Coot, 80+ Black-headed Gull, 5 Herring Gull, Wood Pigeon, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 1 Redwing, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch and Goldfinch. Oh and a Swan Mussel