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According to "Country Life" article*, coots aren't all fluffy and sweet:


"... where duck nest proliferate ... will take eggs opportunistically ... and will drown duckling by towing them down by the legs."


"Where food is plentiful, the chicks are fed for up to two months and may stay on parental territory for 14 weeks. However, in leaner locations, they are discouraged after the first few days and only the strongest and most persistent two or three per brood survive."



* "As bald as a coot", Country Life 13.02.19

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------


> I passed by there yesterday and only saw one

> sign?


There are about 3 :)


> I think if I had seen anybody feeding ducks bread

> next to it I might have had a polite word with

> them :)


The family who were there when we arrived, cleared off as soon as we pulled out the freezer bags of duck food. The other chap was wandering around with a plastic bag full of bread, throwing it mainly to the pigeons, then lobbing some into the pond - while stood next to the sign.


You're braver than I am. I just did the passive aggressive British thing of loudly agreeing with my 5 year old when he said that people shouldn't be feeding the ducks bread.


------


I think there may be 2 families of coots? I saw parents with 2, and then there's a nest full of the fluffy blighters at the end near the small playground.

tiddles Wrote:

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> Oh good i was worried about those baby coots - mr

> heron is very clearly abour

> We saw one set of parents with 5 and another set

> with just 1...

>

> Just waiting for the ducklings ....


Five fluffy yellow Canada goslings in the pond this morning.......

Went on a dawn chorus walk around Green Dale fields yesterday morning and heard and/or saw 27 different bird species: robin, blackbird, wren, dunnock, house sparrow, chiffchaff, blackcap, goldfinch, greenfinch, bullfinch, blue tit, great tit, long-tailed tit, song thrush, magpie, carrion crow, jackdaw, black-headed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, cormorant, mallard, ring-necked parakeet, greater spotted woodpecker, starling, woodpigeon and goldcrest. Worth getting up before 4am :)

amlh Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------


> Also - saw a turtle for the first time in the

> other pond near the bamboo house/wooden shelter

> thing. First time ever.



Unfortunately, somebody may have tired of it as a pet (possibly when it grew larger) and dumped it there :(

amlh Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------


> Also - saw a turtle for the first time in the

> other pond near the bamboo house/wooden shelter

> thing. First time ever.


I'm sure I've seen turtles there every year for a long time. Will ask children to remind me when they get home.

Actually come to think of it, I have a vague memory of seeing a turtle there, out of the water.


ETA: But I don't think there is any way it (or possibly they) could have got there unless at some point somebody actually put them there. Unless they had made a bid for freedom from somebody's house or garden :)

There are also several in the village pond at Ditchling, where I once lived. We thought there was just one, until one day we saw three at once sunbathing on a rock.


I also found one wandering down the path at the horticulture department in Stanmer Park, where I worked at the time :) I put it in one of our ponds :)

Keep an eye and an ear out for the return of the swifts ? now's usually about the time. Here's what I've recorded as the first day they've been seen or heard in ED in previous years:

2011 ? May 9

2012 ? May 1

2013 ? May 17

2014 ? May 8

2015 ? May 9

2016 ? May 4

2017 - May 6

2018 ? May 7

Nice! I think I heard one at about 6.00 this evening ? Barry Rd near Peckham Rye, so it sounds like they're back. If only for two months or so. It's funny that we think of them as 'our' birds that spend the winter in Africa, when in reality it makes more sense to see them as African birds that just breed here.

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