I wrote last year about how much joy I get from seeing baby birds slowly grow into adults over the span of often as little as a few months:
And they grow up so fast! People say that about humans. No, humans do not grow up fast. Thirteen years to reach puberty? Birds are already there in less than a year!
While walking through the Lee Fields a few weeks ago, I saw this, and I knew a very happy time of the year had begun.
My heart soared, because I knew, over the next few weeks, new life would be coming into the world. This is my second year of being a wildlife fanatic, and last year, I was experiencing everything for the first time. This year, I have a rough idea of when things will happen with regard to wildlife, when to expect new insects, when to expect Winter birds later in the year, and I knew roughly when I was going to first see new baby birds. So in future years, the months April to May will be a particularly happy time for me, because I’ll know about the wonders that are about to enter our world!
I mainly go to see the baby birds in The Lough, this is an urban lake not far from where I live. Last year I saw ducklings, cygnets, goslings and coot chicks, four different species of bird baby! So far this year at the Lough I’ve seen ducklings, cygnets and goslings.
I even got some recordings of the baby birds. These aren’t the clearest, I’m competing with a tremendous amount of background noise at the Lough, but this is what I managed to get.
This is the sound of baby mallards. If you can get your ears to filter out an unending sea of background noise, focus on the high pitched “eeeee eeeee” sound. That’s the little mallards!
And this is the sound of the goslings:
Here you’ll hear the adult greylags and the baby greylags or goslings make sounds together. The goslings are making the high pitched “weep weep” sound.
Truly joyous sounds! But yesterday, I saw something I didn’t expect to see.
20? I wasn’t expecting this at all. How did she manage to have so many babies? But apparently, it can happen. Have a look at this video from A Shot Of Wildlife:
On average they lay eleven eggs, but it can happen that they lay as many as eighteen. So yeah, it looks like laying twenty eggs is unusual, but it can happen!
I’m not sure if it comes across in the photos or not, but the ducklings are so tiny! I think I could just about fit four of them in my hands, definitely three!
Last year, on the River Lee, around the Lee Fields, I encountered an absolutely wonderful family of five cygnets!
It was so joyous to see, the mother and father followed by their five children, swimming down the River Lee. So it delights me to say that five cygnets have been born in the Lough!
Perhaps not all of these little balls of grey wonder will make it to adulthood. There are some large gulls that live in the Lough that may take one or more of the cygnets. But hopefully, all five will make it to adulthood. I’m looking forward to seeing a family of five journeying around the Lough, just like the family of five cygnets that used to be on the River Lee!
And this photo makes me smile just as much.
To put this into context, the cygnet was initially on their parent’s back. I don’t know if this is the mother or the father, because male and female swans are pretty much identical, and both of them are involved in raising the children. The cygnet then fell off the parent’s back, and tried over and over to get back on, but couldn’t! It really made me smile!
So whether it’s the goslings:
Or the ducklings:
Or the cygnets:
they won’t stay tiny puffballs forever. Over the next few months, I’m going to continue to visit them, and watch as they progress from tiny little vulnerable creatures, to large animals capable of taking their rightful place in the sky. It’s going to be so exciting!
Ponderings Of An Autist 