Thursday 13th January (An Amorous Anas)

Today Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window and saw two Communtiy Police Support Officers strolling along. That reminded Mr. Kite that some unfortunate people still have to work to support the country on the other hand Mr. Kite had a busy day socialising and not too much time to go birding.

So Mr. Kite decided that he would take his telescope to Monkmoor Lagoon and spy on the new arrivals. Yesterday when he departed from the lagoon there were five Mallards, one Shoveler and three Mute Swans, so Mr. Kite was interested to see if any other birds had arrived. Less than ten minutes after leaving home Mr. Kite was looking over the lagoon and counting the birds; eight Mallard, four Shoveler and one Cormorant. The three Mute Swans had left.

Yesterday the Shoveler present was a colourful male and Mr. Kite assumed it was the same bird. Now the Shoveler was also called Blue-wing Shoveler, Kertutock or Broad-bill by Thomas Bewick in the 19th century. The female Shoveler is remarkable bird with her long, broad and heavy bill and at a distance can be mistaken for a female Mallard but the male is unmistakable. Mr. Kite likes Bewick's description of the male Shoveler. Bewick wrote, 'the irides are a fine pure yellow; the head and upper half of the neck of a glossy changeable green: the lower part of the neck, the breast, and scapulars, white: the back is brown: belly and sides chestnut bay, and the wing coverts of a fine pale sky blue, terminated with white tips, which form an oblique stripe across the wings, and an upper border to the beauty spot, or spangle, which is of a glossy changeable bronze, or resplendent green, and also divides or crosses the wings in the same direction: the greater quills and the tail are dusky, but in the latter the outside feathers, and the edges of some of the adjoining ones are white: a ring of white also encircles the rump and the vent, behind which the feathers under the tail are black: legs and feet red. Such a magnificent description explains why this male had three female admirers that swam close to him.

 Yesterday Mr. Kite watched this male Broad-bill as he was swimming in circles filtering water, using his broad black bill, to feed from the plankton, floating seeds, insects and crustaceans but today this amorous anas had other thoughts. Now the ice had melted, as a result of the warmer weather, this male thought spring was in the air and used his broad black bill to hold the back of an admirers head whilst he sat on their back and submerged them for other reasons.

Now Mr. Kite then had to depart because of his busy day ahead. In the lane near the lagoon Mr. Kite met a fellow birder. The fellow birder with a dog asked Mr. Kite, "Did you see the Bittern?",
"No." replied Mr. Kite. "It was only there two days", the birder with a dog replied. After a little more conversation Mr. Kite and the birder with the dog went their separate ways. Mr. Kite knows this birder is a reliable source of information so he concluded that the Bittern was there and well camouflaged.

Never mind Mr. Kite had a good day and enjoyed his tipple of Tetley tea. Chow.