Saturday 6 April 2013

Birds at Musselburgh

I had two odd birdwatching moments yesterday at Musselburgh. First I was watching some mallards, renowned for their aggresive mating, with the male seeming to try to drown the female, often groups of males jumping on top of the one female. Yesterday though the female had obviously decided it was time to get revenge, there she was, on top of amale, biting his neck! 

The second oddity was seeing a skylark singing from a perch! I don't think I've ever seen that before, I mean they're called skylarks because they sing from the sky! One of the most evocative of summer sounds, even on a cold grey day with snow still on the distant hills. When I shared this observation on Twitter, someone replied saying that skylarks often sing from a perch. It is of course, wonderful to hear a skylark, wherever it happens to be, their populations are decreasing quite alarmingly across the UK. I know at least three areas around Edinburgh where they still nest, and hopefully they'll continue to do so. 

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5 comments:

bunnits said...

Interesting day birding.

To parody RG over at A Houseful of Rabbits: Birds are weird!

I should add that birding is one of my favorite pastimes and I really love them.

Little Miss Titch said...

Beautiful birds Skylarks!

The Weaver of Grass said...

I had not heard this about skylarks before Juliet. I love their song - it is Summer personified.

As to that female mallard - good for her I say!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

The Skylark's song must be wonderful and now I must google to see if it is different from what we call meadowlarks. Must be, because they always sing from perches. Anyway, any bird song is wonderful...our alarm these days is a mockingbird who sings beautifully and differently every day.

And yes, we have noticed that those beautiful ducks are not as sweet and innocent as they appear!)

Optimistic Existentialist said...

Good for that female mallard getting her revenge haha.