I spotted a chaffinch cheerfully chirping early in the walk, but was unable to see it clearly through all the branches, next I spotted a robin and a pied wagtail, and learnt that the robin was distinctly territorial, so the wagtail was soon displaced from the fence top! The early part of my visit with its sunshine allowed me to take shots of various pochard (Click the blue text here to see some beautiful birds), both ducks and drakes and also the red-crested pochard, but as the sun was overtaken by clouds, and families with children threw bread to the mallard and coots, in swooped the jealous and greedy black-headed gulls, intent on stealing every last scrap by attacking en masse.
What was interesting about that is that invariably most of the gulls would leave the melée early and chase the first successful gulls for the morsel, leaving just a few of their number on the water to pick up the sodden remnants. I managed to capture some of the gulls who had the bread, who on being chased managed to lose a grip on their food; in one case because it decided it wanted to sqwawk!
Although I brought along some seeds for the smaller birds, none flew to my carefully prepared small piles strategically place in attractive settings such as stripped bark, fence-posts, tables and winding gear – at least not whilst I waited at a distance!
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