It was another bright but very cold day, and R and I took ourselves off to Croome for a walk around the park, and then lunch. Everywhere was pretty quiet, bird-wise, but I was interested to spot a couple of Wigeon at the lake. It’s not unusual to see Wigeon at Croome in the winter, but these are truly wild ducks and not comfortable around humans, so they’re more likely to be found in a flock on the outer stretch of the artificial river, or grazing the fields to either side of it, than at the lake where there’s a steady stream of people passing by.
I’ve anthropomorphised this scene as a love triangle, but in truth the drake Wigeon wasn’t at all interested in the Mallards – he had a female of his own, with whom he’d being doing synchronised snoozing in the reeds when I first caught sight of him. But once he woke up and started swimming around the female Mallard came over and took a good look at him, and even though by now she’d decided he was less interesting than her lunch, her partner was still eyeing the flashy interloper with considerable suspicion. I thought for a moment that he might kick off, because Mallard drakes are wont to be a bit possessive – not entirely unreasonably, given that there are never enough females to go round – but in the end he decided to let the incident pass.
R: L2, C1, D12.
