Connaught Water
I was in Epping earlier and after reading Pauls blog the other day i thought i would head back to Brentwood via South Woodford (maybe a little out of a direct route but....). In taking this direction it would lead me to Connaught Water for the Mandarin Ducks.
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| courtesy www.cannon-fodder-forums.com |
It was freezing, i was suited, the Mandarins; all 11 males and 3 females plus one Wood Duck looking individual were showing well but i didnt hang about to take in a proper look; tick; thank you and good bye for the Mandarin.
Upon getting back to the office i Googled "Wood Duck Connaught Water" quite a lot of entries for sightings of Wood Duck and this photo by renowned Birder / Photogrpaher, Les Harrison. Now it wasnt exactly the same but looked similar with the white head markings etc but seemed darker on the sides and underneath. I'll go back another day and take another look.
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| courtesy of Les Harrison |
Other Birds Seen: Shoveller, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Canada Goose, Mallard, Teal, Blackbird, Coot,
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duck couple, on the land, with a single chick accompanying them. The chick was also rather tall, with mottled yellow and black down that almost looked green, and we noticed two little reddish 'bumps' hanging down from his underbelly.
The family was so amusing! The chick was peeping and running on ahead of it's parental units just
like any adventurous baby! The previous week's rain had made the path impassable, so we turned
back in order to walk the other side. Again we greeted the new duck family as we retraced our
steps. A few minutes later, as we were walking the path to the left of the car park, we heard a loud and raucus commotion coming from the water.
What we saw first was the two duck parents charging at a swan, squawking and beating their wings, but the Swan was fending them off. My friend saw it first: the Swan had the baby duckling in his beak and was drowning it! Repeatedly, the Swan dunked the little duckling in the water and
held it there. Initially there were some struggling movements from the little one's body but, before too long, it was just a limp and lifeless little mass of wet feathers. The distraught parents could only watch and call out in vain. The Swan held firmly and continued to dunk the now-dead duckling.
'That's Nature for you', my friend said and, despite the pangs of empathy for the duck parents, we could only marvel at the wierdness of it all, and the fact that we'd just witnessed some instinctive form of bird brutality.
Our best guess was that the Swan was acting to reduce the competition for food once his brood was up and about but, it would be interesting to know if anyone else has ever witnessed this behavior, and if anyone knows what it means. We'd also like to identify those particular ducks.