Found the Centurion at last!!!

Last week I started my search for Flash and Whisper around all the local bodies of water and I ended up finding nothing or a different pair of Swans that from a distance could have been them. After reaching the last possible small pool which was located in somebody's garden nearby to where Flash was rescued in December 20014. The pond is next to a cottage and is about 300-400M away from the footpath where I can watch from as the pond is on private land. 

 View from the road of the Pond in the summer as you can see the tree's hide it's location

The current view of the pond

You can just about see the pond through the leafless bushes and luckily I could just make out 2 Swans on the water but I needed to see there leg tags. I waited for a while and the 2 swans jumped up onto the edge of the pond where I could just zoom into check there tags which were both green like Flash and Whispers!!!. I took a few photographs so I could zoom in and try to read there tag numbers then I could see if any of the letters match Flash and Whispers tags.

 Whisper                 -                       Flash

Both first letters Look like C and from what I can see the second letters match Flash and Whispers tags

Hopefully the Centurion and his bride will come back very soon once the weather warms up and reeds on the lake begin to push through the waters surface ready for the Swans to pull out and build there nests up high out of the reach of flooding waters.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

A character from the summer of 2014 returns

A quick post to say a young Swan that hatched in 2014 has now returned to the canal. He is easily recognized by his abnormal neck as you will see from the photographs below it's perfectly healthy as it can fly and feed perfectly fine. Here's a link to an old post where I photographed him/her when they back with there parents a few miles from Middlewich.

http://cheshirewildlifewatcher.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/rhinos-little-one-quasi.html

It's nice to see he's survived and hopefully one day we may see him/her fully White and have a family of there own. After the Buzzard find it was nice to have abit of good news and to see an old character from the Summer return and in such good health.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Visit to Middlewich's Swan meeting point

A lovely sunny day yesterday so I popped down to the local Swan meeting point to count the Swans with my brother. My brother aka the Swan Whisperer records numbers of adults and cygnets each day when he can. He also records there tag numbers to update the Swans movements with the local Swan/bird ringer David Cookson. We then find out the Swans movements and histories from where they were ringed, male or female and where they have been spotted over there time since being ringed.
While my brother counted them I took an opportunity to get a few low photographs:

One Swan seemed to own the high ground to get all the food and kept pecking any that would get to greedy

As we were leaving 2 more adults flew in at last light to join the ever growing group of swans

Middlewich Swan meeting area is monitored by a local Swan group who have campaigned and paid for a fence to stop the Swans getting on the nearby road which is great. I appreciate all they have done in doing this for the Swans protection. The small group of 5 also feed and monitor the swans health which is also a great thing to do. Over the past few years my brother has done alot for the swans as I have myself for the Swans and other local wildlife, habitats and conservation over a large local area. We patrol with our cameras regularly to enjoy the fresh air, outdoors and make sure there's no wildlife crimes being committed. We have both received alot of praise and some media attention which was not our intention but if it helps to promote caring for nature locally then I am up for it. We don't have much to do the local Swan group as my brother has received lots of negative behavior from the chairman of the local Swan group but I only care about the wildlife's safety not credit or praise. So to anyone who's bitter about the Swan Whisperer and his work, I would just let it go.
Anyway now that I've cleared that up here's a few more photographs I took yesterday at the Middlewich Swan meeting point
Hard at work ;-)

Keeping the pecking order

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Is it Spring or not spring?

As the end of February was approaching and the weather warmed up for a few weeks. With this sudden change in temperatures things here began to grow from the strong smelling Wild Garlic to the lush fresh green grass and it's all sprouting up on my local patch in Cheshire.

On the lake one of the Great crested grebe pair has returned and he or she will be watches the skies calling out to it's mate or another Grebe flying over. I am hoping they will be both here before mid March and then they will begin there courtship to nest building and then egg laying. Hopefully I will be filming there efforts as there season progress and I really like getting in close without disturbing.  I mainly use mini cams and Camera traps to capture the best action in the day and at night. I have filmed them in this way for the past 2 years and each they return and breed successfully right up to the chicks reaching adulthood and the point they leave in early winter with the adults to spend the winter on the coast.

One strange thing on the lake this year is the absence of the pair of Swans that are normally patrolling the area ready to begin there nesting season. This got me thinking about where Flash and his new mate Whisper are as this got me thinking whether they know more than we do especially about the warmer weather. As the cold weather has returned I'm thinking this may be the case and over the next week or two I'll be checking as much of the local rivers, canals, lakes and ponds to see if I can find them.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

A cool find by the river

While walking along the canal the other morning to see if there the Swans or Grebes had returned to the lake. Something caught my eye at the side of the canal where the old vegetation had died back revealing a Swan skeleton which I think was from 2014. Last summer a yearling died after fighting with the local pair which at that time was Flash and Snow, it started as a territory dispute although sad it's natural behavior. I have seen some people locally break up these fights by hitting the attacking swan. I think that's wrong and as it's a natural event I don't believe we should step in but if one of the Swans was pushed onto a road by the attacking swan then humans should step in. I remember seeing the Swans body floating on the canal and then it disappeared. I'm guessing somebody took the bird out of the water and placed it in the thick vegetation to rot away naturally.

The skull is an unusual find due to the condition as it's very fragile due to high light the bones are. We only took the skull and left the rest of the Swan as it will be great for future talks and showing people as I am sure there are not many people who have seen a Mute Swan skull.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

A sunny day with Swans on ice

While taking a quick walk in the sunshine to find a sheltered spot by the river to enjoy the sound of the rippling water and the bright warm sun. We saw many Goosanders and Kingfishers down on the river Dane as the canal was to frozen for them to feed and as the river runs along side the canal it's perfect for wildlife to move from one to the other. When the river floods and gets murky the birds move from the river to the canal. This Swan and it's mate decided it would be better to sit on the canal ice rather than walk on it.

It was great to watch the pair navigate the thick and slippy ice to get back to each other before taking off to possibly return to the local Swannery.

A few days later the ice melted but Flash and his mate Whisper left before the ice came in and I am hoping that once it gets abit warmer they will return to begin nest building. My filming will begin at this point as I hope to follow them through the season and show a few things that this pair gets up to when raising a family on my local patch.

I got a lovely few hours in the sun that day as we were out of the cold wind and you would not believe it was winter in the spot we found down by the river.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike