Bad Tempered or Good Parent?

 

I visited Martin Mere twice in March and in the resident collection of birds from around the world there is a pair of Coscoroba Swans, a species native to South America. It is the smallest variety of swan although is larger than most geese, and I think it is a very good looking bird. The female was (as you can see) on the nest, and the male was dutifully patrolling the perimeter warding off any potential threats. He was quite aggressive and I definitely didn't want to get too close. He seemed quite grumpy and bad tempered but I guess you could argue that he was taking his role very seriously and doing his best to protect his future family.

Although unrelated I have included an extra image below, this time of a Moorhen also sat on its nest. It is that time of year and I look forward to seeing lots of new life as spring really gets under way. 

On a different note I wanted to say thank you for taking the time top view this blog. Even though I haven't actually posted anything since 24th January it is really gratifying to see that the blog is generating some traffic. Here are a few stats: In February there were 11,470 visits, in the past week there were 7,480 visits and in the last two days alone there have been 941 visits. I am really happy with that and hopefully this will continue. I don't make any money from this site, it is purely about sharing images that I have taken. So thanks again for stopping by.

Guillemot

 This is a Guillemot, a member of the auk family and one of the most common seabirds to nest around our shores, however this was the only pair of the birds that I could photograph on Skomer, the rest were nesting too far away.

As with the puffins the male and female birds spend the winter apart, meeting up in the breeding season when they lay one egg on a rocky ledge. They don't make a nest but as in this shot they clear the space of any stones or debris that might be in the way.

When the egg hatches both parents will attend to the chick for the first three weeks or so after which the chick will go to the water where it is looked after exclusively by the male parent who will feed it and train it for the next 12 weeks. |t does not fly until it is 8 - 10 weeks old