A trip up to Windermere was the plan for today, but half way along the M6 we were starting to wonder whether we had made the right choice. Torrential rain and black cloud loomed over the horizon and covered the hills in gloom. However, by the time we reached Bowness-on-Windermere, the sun was shining! Our spirits were lifted further by a female Goosander sat out of the water on the shore at Bowness. So quickly grabbing the bread we attempted to catch the bird but she slipped back into the water and scurried across the water. To our surprise we later found the bird in the next bay and this time she was coming to feed on the bread in true Mallard fashion! It might seem strange behaviour for a bird that normally catches fish, but after a bit of time and patience the bird became the 3rd Goosander to be hand caught at Lake Windermere in two years!
After finishing at Windermere, we decided to head for Pine Lake to count the Coot & more importantly look for colour ringed birds! No cr-ringed Coot were to be found – so we turned our attention to the Black Headed Gulls, a species that we seem to be having more luck with recently! The Gulls seemed very tame today, feeding from our hands & we couldn’t resist catching a bird that was already carrying a ring – EG45011 – which I think was ringed by Robin Sellers at Lake Windermere.
If only we could stay in the car & catch Gulls all the time!
This may look harsh but the gull was not harmed in anyway!
Ring read & released from the window!
We then headed to Preston Docks before dropping Ciaran off. Again we were looking for colour ringed Coot but another ringed Black Headed Gull turned up & well…. we couldn’t leave with out trying to read it! This bird was carrying a Lithuanian ring – HA06.695
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