Pairing Up

Spring has arrived and for much wildlife the breeding season is beginning. The ducks and swans are pairing up on the ponds and rivers. Exotic looking crested grebes have an elaborate courtship display which you may be lucky enough to catch.

I’ve been seeing a pair of goosanders always on the same stretch of river. The male and female look quite different from each other, with the female having the brown head.

On the canal there is a pair of goldeneye ducks, much easier to photograph than the pairs on the pond which always fly away if I get too close with the camera. Again the female has the brown head.

Here are a couple of mallards, perhaps our most common of ducks. The male is the most colourful of the pair.

Here is a pair of greylag geese by a nearby pond.

Hares have been pairing up too. The other day I saw six in a nearby field. Two pairs and two individuals. I’ve not seen them boxing this year …yet, when the female will box off unwanted suitors and these courting battles give rise to the phrase “mad March hares”. Perhaps I’m now too late to see this if pairs are already established.

Pigeons always seem to be loved up, shamelessly carrying on wherever and whenever they can!

Last weekend I heard then saw a group of jays, squawking together and flying from one group of trees to another. I was thrilled as I’ve only ever seen one feeding at a bird hide. I am wondering if when I saw them they were pairing up and courting each other. Here is a pair of them.

I was delighted to see a pair of blue tits going backwards and forwards from a wee hole in our wall above our back door. The hole used to be for an overflow pipe. However I was told that our house walls were due to be re-rendered at the end of this month and the hole filled in. I couldn’t let the blue tits continue with their nest building there so we bought a plank of wood and made a blue tit nest box. No sooner had I painted some waterproof coating over the box and had it attached to the top of a shed when the pair found it and relocated!!

I was worried when I saw them pecking around the hole. We had made it the recommended 25mm diameter, however maybe we had made a mistake and the hole needed to be bigger? No, I looked it up and the RSPB say that this behaviour means the “For Sale” sign can come down and the nest site has been bagged! The birds do this as a signal to others that they have staked their claim. Later on I was reassured to see one go in and out of the box.

So I’m chuffed to bits that we can watch our own pair of blue tits from the house and hopefully see them raise a family together.