It’s nesting season and we’re appreciating it. We find a swan on her nest and watch for babies, and then try making a nest ourselves in the back garden. In June, the cygnets arrive. We see them in the distance but hunting for them finds something even better…
230 – Spotting a nesting swan
Friday 16 May. Sunny. 20°C
We’re hunting for nesting swans. We’ve seen a few pairs but not found any on their nests yet but my mum has found one for us. We trot along after school, hoping she’ll still be there.
She is. She looks very patient. There are some geese nearby but she’s keeping a beady eye on them. We will keep checking back and hoping for cygnets.
The next day we walk round the bay and spot a coot on a nest too. We’re in the zone now. No more swans though. Maybe they’re hiding.
227 – Making a nest & 228 – Finding a home for it
Monday 19 May. Sunny. 20°C & Tuesday 20 May. Sunny. 20°C
We’ve got a new project. After spotting birds on nests over the weekend we’ve decided to make our own. Birds do it after all, how hard can it be?
We explore the garden and find lots of twigs, some old dead leaves (our garden’s not the tidiest), and some fluffy stuff we find in a corner. It’s been so dry we dig up some dust and add water to make mud. Then we find some flowers and leaves to decorate it.
We go for the twigs first and try and get them to stick together. After a while we get some wool and tie the corners (birds might be brighter than us after all). Once we’ve got it in a sort of structure we put some leaves in the middle and pour some mud on. Then we put more leaves and more mud and try and make a dent for eggs to go.
It’s fun. We could definitely have improved on our attention to detail. We try and make up for it by attaching the flowers and the leaves to the corners. Then we put it on a garden chair in the sun to dry out.
The next day it’s all ‘set’ and we think about where to put it. The garden tree is the obvious place. I try and persuade B to climb up and find somewhere. She doesn’t think this is a good idea.
“Just put it there!”
I look and see a branch. “It will fall down!”
“No, it won’t. That’s a good place.”
We try it and it fits beautifully and seems secure enough. I’m not sure though. “Wouldn’t it be better to find somewhere with a couple of branches so it’s secure?”
We have a stand off. In the end we agree I can climb the tree and see if I can find somewhere… and it turns out mummy’s are not always right. I try and put it up high on a ‘better’ branch and it twists, disintegrates and collapses in pieces on my head. B is very amused!
193 – Finding a secret place in the reeds down by the water
Sunday 22 June. Windy. 20°C
It’s a quiet Sunday and we’ve come out to look for the cygnets. We saw them in the distance a week or so ago but we want to get close. We head down to the bay side where they normally hang around but there’s no sign of them. There’s lots of coots and some cormorants and even a heron. No babies. We’re disappointed.
We’ve brought a large bag of bird seed so try throwing some in to see if the swans will appear. They don’t but some ducks seem vaguely interested and come over for a look. We have a strong sense of anti climax and are thinking of going home when we notice a little path down to the water we’d not seen before.
Following it we find a secret place, made of big granite stones lining the artificial lake, snuggling in between the bank and the reeds. The ducks are right by it and we throw more seed. They’re not that bothered but we don’t care, we’re finding so much more to look at. Sitting quietly between the water and the land has something magic about it. The wind is making swirling patterns in the water by us and then fanning out beyond the reeds. A dragonfly swirls by and B gets obsessed with following it. It’s surprisingly tolerant of this but it’s hard to spot. We keep loosing it and finding it again.
Then we notice under the water a whole world of interesting things. There’s the slimy body of an underwater slug working it’s way methodically round a rock and lots of water snails. One of them likes bird seed but finds it hard to digest. The more we look down the more details we see.
It’s one of the best challenges we’ve had I think, and better for being unexpected, unplanned and arising out of failure. I’ll be looking out for more little paths to see where they go.
190 – Hearing the dawn chorus
Wednesday 25 June. Cloudy. 14°C
It’s 4.30am and the cat has woken both of us up. We will be talking to him about this. He wants to go outside. I open B’s bedroom window to let him out and neither of us can believe the noise. There’s a cacophony of bird song happening. Early challenge!
We write 190 on a bit of paper by the window and stand listening. There’s little birds tweeting in the trees nearby and then the seagulls start making a ruckus further away. It’s multi layered and complex but we’re not very awake. So we give up and go back to bed.
