Not autumn already?
I was shocked and stunned this morning to notice that as I fed the collection birds in the gosling field; Autumn had arrived.
These classic autumn images; of birds tussling for the prime feeding position and that low piercing autumnal light, are one of my favourite parts of the season. More than any other time you begin to feel the dependency between bird and man, not just in their reaction to your presence but in relation to the future.
Juvenile birds from the 2011 season cock their eyes up at you in expectation of food. Still so young they can remember their coop dishes, they scrabble around in the shallow water, still too naive to up-end and scrabble in the shallows for yesterday's left overs. The body fat that they put on now can make all the difference as to whether they make a good start.
This is an important time of year for us, as we sift through and sort our breeding stock, fill gaps in aviaries, distribute to other trust centres and prepare to over-winter tender species. We look in aviaries and work out which species did not breed in 2011.
We get to thinking about the most usual explanation for these issues e.g. bullying from tougher birds, poor genetics, age, nesting availability. We move birds to new homes, make new pairs and watch them grow. New pairs this year include Eytons whistling duck, African Yellowbill, Freckled duck and Bufflehead.
All of these species have had a re-vamp and spring clean. With any luck, these changes will make all the difference come April, when the wet, cold and windy British winter time will have forced all ideas of breeding clean out of our heads!
Goodbye summer; it's been great.
