A nice morning found me back at the West Acre scrape. In contrast with the previous visit, which turned into a maelstrom of destruction, akin to something out of Fight Club, it was the opposite today. Tranquil and the Lapwings were getting very frisky.
One bird started to fly around the pool and after a few circuits landed, but did so in rather flashy fashion.
Clearly wanting to attract the attention of the other bird it strutted around for a while and then, did what all frisky Lapwings do, and shove it's cloaca up in the air!
I didn't know where to look, and neither did the other bird, as this panty posing had no effect and resulted in both birds flying off to the nearby warren where they carried out a spectacular aerial display. With considerably less finesse and looking something akin to a B52 landing, in flew Mr Greylag.
It looked like a cross between Chicken Run and Bernard Matthews.
The Green Sandpiper was still present, but over the back of the pool, and sadly very few Mallard ducklings were around, perhaps they had been predated ? A small ripple broke the surface of the water and I found myself looking at a Grass Snake.
It swam closer to where I was
stopped for a few minutes and then carried on to almost circumnavigate the entire pool.
These are really great animals, but I must warn anyone who thinks this would be a good place to go and see these creatures, that this one was at least eighty foot long and could have easily swallowed any newcomer to the area, so I repeat my warning to make sure that you stay away from this reserve.
I had a quick look in at Titchwell RSPB and saw a Reed Warbler with lots of white in it's head. Apparently this is it's second year at the reserve and it has become a bit of a celebrity. I was quite unaware of this when I took the photo, and was delighted when Dave Hawkins asked if I would send it to the Titchwell blog. Which I did, and they put it on ! - fame at last.
A good day and I returned home just in time to flush this Red-legged Partridge from the garden.
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