Yet another one!

Checked the sink garden this morning...no change.

 On returning home late this afternoon no sign of Mrs Mallard but a fourth egg in the sink!

There's room for more!

Keep watching this space!

A new day....another new egg!

At 8.00am this morning Mrs Mallard was sitting in the sink garden and within a few minutes, hey presto, another egg. After rearranging the (now) clutch of three, spacing them well apart, she departed. We await tomorrow morning with interest!

The well spaced eggs in the sink garden.

Another egg!

As  I returned from my morning inspection of Pagham Spit I discovered the 'strange' Mallard sitting in the sink garden as I passed within a few feet of the front door.

Keeping an eye on me as I let myself into the bungalow.

A few minutes later she was shuffling about  rearranging the greenery and low and behold there was another egg!

Now there are two eggs in the sink.

Job done and she is off...not seen again all day!

Very little of interest on the spit ....a female Blackbird was collecting grubs/worms and taking them to a nest adjacent to the Little Lagoon, a Linnet was making a nest in a clump of ivy which is slightly unusual as they usually build in the gorse. A couple of Meadow Pipits flew along the spit and a single Chiffchaff flitted about in the bushes. Twenty Curlew flew high out to sea and the Peregrine was sitting on his usual spot on New Island. A pair of Shelducks were exploring the possibility of using the rabbit holes as they do each year, before deciding  that there is far too much disturbance to be serious about it!

The 'Odd Couple' saga continues.

Following on from the blog of March 26, this morning another duck egg is laid.............this time in the sink garden next to our front door! This couple of Mallard Hybrids are really very strange!

Obviously cleared or squashed some of the greenery in the 'nest' area.

A closer view.

Can anyone explain this odd behaviour now becoming an annual occurrence.

More Iceland Gull photos.

After the early fog lifted the sun came out and it was a glorious day!

Four Meadow Pipits were on Pagham Spit and at least 3 Chiffchaffs were in the gorse. Greenfinches and Linnets were very active in the gorse throughout the spit and adjacent to the Lagoon.
The female Goldeneye was still present and the Iceland Gull was still in its usual spot at the far (eastern) end of the Lagoon. I tried to get some 'different' shots of the Iceland but it tends to do very little to create interest. However the light on the water was interesting and it did flutter and create a few possibilities!

Wing stretching poses.

 

ing stretching poses

In more static pose!

I wonder if it will depart soon or stay the summer...who knows!

The Odd Couple!

The original pair in 2005...on the hedge.

The female (?) in 2005..in the wheel barrow!

For the last  9 years a pair of Mallard Hybrids have visited our small garden on the beach and for the past two  have laid 2 and 3 eggs respectively. Last year it was a scrape down an alleyway, the previous year they used a sink garden and this year  a grassy patch bordering the road. The eggs are not brooded and obviously come to nothing. The birds will come and tap on the patio window begging for food or sit on a roof or a hedge or in a wheelbarrow...all most odd. They only come in March and spend the rest of the year on the Lagoon.
She seems to have a new partner this year or maybe it is the same bird having moulted but they always act in the same strange way.

Today approaching the patio doors

Today...the eggs on the grass.

The Iceland Gull was being fed by a chalet resident on the Lagoon at 7.15 this morning...a Peregrine flew over the beach at 7.30 but apart from a couple of Wheatears and a singing Dunnock very little to report...hence my story of the Mallards!

Looking pretty on Gorse

Dunnock in full song.

All white in flight!

Very little to report but conspicuous by their absence...Brents. I didn't see one!
A few Wigeon and a few Curlew and about 40 Turnstones.

So the 'white' theme...

Mute Swan past the Spit Hide

up, up and away.

Little Egret.

Little Egret

Black Headed Gull

Distant...Iceland Gull over the Lagoon (well...almost white!)