SWANN Vista's

Never a dull moment in my job!  Well not quite true as the morning consisted of emails and project planning, budgets and other mundane stuff, although I had a sneaky walk around the park and clocked a few goldfinch, assorted tits and a robin sheltering amongst the frosty branches of the silver birches outside the front door. Rescuing a few old apple cores from the compost bin, I hope I helped a little bit!

Coming to my rescue was an afternoon trip to see Sandra Butler at Shasun in Dudley. Sandra is one of those people you cannot fail to admire, she loves her wildlife so much and has a knack of making sure other people care as much as she does! Over the last few months we have been working to bring in finances to develop a nature reserve wholly contained within the boundaries of this pharmacutical factory, a hidden oasis for wildlife. With three good sized ponds, it already attracts a decent range of birds.

Today it looked just like everywhere else - white! About a foot of snow covered the lagoons but one small area of open water held about 40 mallard, a female pochard and four mute swans, in a really small area. Sandra does a bit of supplementary feeding with donated wheat, which must help in weather such as this.

As the first of the seed was scattered, the swans dragged their bulk slowly from the icy clutches of the frozen waters, looking ungainly and unsurprisingly lethargic. They showed no interest for a bit so we moved away in case they were shy in our company. Just as we did so three of the birds suddenly took to the air in a flurry of snow. Looking spectacular against the clear blue skies, the first two slowly gained height  but the third appeared to be struggling. With a short but loud honk she crashed into deep snow a few feet away and it was clear she had been chasing the other two off!

All we could see was an orange and black beak, a smudge in the otherwise pristine snow.  I thought she was OK but realised she was stuck and unable to stand. Approaching with caution, in case of a mighty peck, I was steeling myself to pick her up and move her to safety. Thankfully, the avian adrenaline kicked in and she struggled more determindly, getting her wings over the show and suddenly gained the strength to move herself quickly over the snow, not quite taking flight but with enough momentum to reach the icy pond and relative safety. Once again it demonstrated just how wildlife is affected by these conditions, making even large birds vulnerable to predators, such as the fox whose footprints were everywhere in the snow.

As we walked back for a coffee, 10 goldfinch drifted into the tree tops and a blackbird took advantage of the easy meal from the seed bucket. Three robins took refuge in the scrub and blackberry thicket which also housed a few rabbits.

Work to alter pond depths and profiles will start soon and after this pathwork and a boardwalk will be constructed. Additional resources are required to provide a hide, which SWANN are keen to have available for wider use, including school visits. I am sure that the bird list for this site will continue to grow as more attention is focussed upon it and as a sheltered site, the birds and other wildlife will not have the same human interference that other sites may present.

Can't do nowt about the weather though!