One of my recent walks coincided with Father’s Day and, with the lake full of ducklings, goslings, cygnets, grebettes and cooties, it was hardly surprising that my thoughts turned to parents and their young ones.
And my musing circled around four ideas; speed, transformation, nurture and survival.
Speed
I found myself like some archetypal grandparent thinking, “Haven’t they grown’. In the space of two or three weeks, little fur balls of goslings had become young geese, perhaps most notably amongst Canada Geese.
Transformation
Coots are one of the most prevalent birds on the lakes. There hasn’t been a single visit when I haven’t seen at least 10 of them, so I have had a chance to see the ‘circle of life’.
You can’t miss them, they are noisy and aggressive and scuttle and skim across the water chasing interlopers off and can have feet fights where both lie back in the water and fight with their outrageously oddly shaped feet.
They tend to nest quite close to the shore so can easily be seen.
A baby Coot is known as a ‘Cootie’ but, when they are first born, I have to say that I think they look like the inspiration for the ‘Ugly duckling’ (though they aren’t ducks but ‘sails’). However. as they grow, the subby? coat and bald head disappear and soon they are transformed into proper cuties.
Grebes are another bird whose young don’t really resemble their parents as they have an unusual striped plumage.
Nurture
Grebes and their grebettes are also a lovely example of parental love and care as they nurture their young – patiently sitting on their nests, carrying the very young grebettes on their backs and diving down to catch food for them.
Survival
A conversation with a fellow bird watcher really brought home the challenges facing birds and rearing their young. In the photo below, the water drops on this Red-crested Pochard make it look a little like it’s crying, and perhaps it was.
I had seen this twitcher before, carrying binoculars, a camera and some bird food, but this time we got into a conversation. Obviously a very regular visitor, he told me that there were 12 red-crested pochards on the lake and all but one was a drake. However, the female managed to produce a brood of 8 ducklings. I looked around and saw nothing but 3 drakes. He told me that I wouldn’t see any ducklings as they were all gone.
He said it was likely a combination of herons, birds of prey, foxes and the large carp that live in the lake.
Sad, but on further consideration all part of the wonderfully intertwined eco-system around the lake.
Cuteness
Perhaps I should end with a fifth and more uplifting idea – Cuteness, because it is undoubtedly true that the fluffy young birds have the ability to make people go “Aaaah”
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