Anyone who often visits the place where a duck is raising her ducklings, or a pair of geese their goslings, or swans their cygnets, gets used to expecting that not all the chicks are going to make it.
This Canada goose family on the lake at West Park had the opposite. Five fluffy, recently-hatched goslings when I first noticed them were five well-grown chicks at the time of my last visit. But the full group being led by the parents had a sixth gosling, half the size of the others.
There are tufted ducks on West Park lake all year round. Over the winter, some forty or so gather, and spend their time on the water in large groups.
Come spring, most of them head off to their preferred breeding areas. Just a handful stay. Most of them, like the one pictured here, are males. They have a more prominent tuft of feathers on the back of their heads.
Another flower I’d never heard of before. This hardy kiwifruit’s branches were coming over a high garden fence.
A scarlet tiger moth resting on a brick wall. This brightly coloured, day-flying moth seems to be getting more common. Perhaps its range is extending towards the north.
More wild flowers from the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Viper’s bugloss favoured the grassy areas, with a seeming preference for the same spots as wild oats. My picture is of a horned poppy which had also crossed into the grassy area, but normally they are another shingle specialist.
An oystercatcher striding along the edge of one of the pools at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Another sieves under the water for food.
