On Friday I had the unusual challenge of having to find a pair of Mute Swans. A friend of the girls' needed to take some pictures of a pair for an important school Art project, and the '... Paul will know where to find them...' obviously came into conversation. But, do I remember a location for guaranteed close photography ?? - it's something I've never thought about, as I nearly always see Mute Swans when I'm out birding day, but rarely focus on how well I've seen them. So armed with a bag of bagels, Leon and I set out on Friday morning to 'get' the Swans.
We tried all of the local ponds, which were potential Swan territory but because they had recently flooded it seemed most of the wildfowl had evacuated, including any swans. We went to Burton Mill Pond, surely they were there ! ... but it only held a couple of Pochard and Tufted Ducks. I was starting to sweat. Had I been imagining all the Mute Swans I'd ticked on my daily lists each time I went out birding in Sussex ?. We headed to Arundel, as I know if all else failed the WWT would gurantee a pair ! but relief arrived as driving along the road that leads to the WWT , at last, there was a fine pair of Mute Swans, which with the help of the Bagels, posed quite nicely - we saw another 3 on Swanbourne Lake . No much else on view although a Firecrest was calling near where I parked the car but we headed back with the task achieved and guess what - we saw more swans on the way home !
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| A pair of elusive beasts |
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| Black-headed Gull |
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