Bartimaeus

This time of year there are a lot of baby birds and the ones in the water are so much more visible than the ones in a hedge or tree. The babies and parents can be noisier too, either keeping in touch, calling for food or warning against potential attack.

Mostly we see them on the water and they are gliding around. When we were moored near one swan family's home ground they come over looking for titbits. One day the cygnets arrived but some were swimming with only one leg. One was showing off its flexibility and had the other foot curled up on its back. This wasn't a permanent feature, as we saw them often, but it is a habit we have seen in cygnets before. They must have a powerful paddle to manage with only one. I don't know that they could get away with it in a river. The canal isn't always clear enough to see the feet underwater but in this case it was and I could see another cygnet's grey webbed foot  paddling away under the water.

We got a quick look at some webbed feet in action when a group of goslings on the bank, strangely, decided  they were safer in the water than the bank as we drove past, gradually letting themselves into the water, gripping the grassy edge before plopping down. It was fun to watch them all go in.

Some ducklings appear to be able to run on the surface of the water. They do so as a sudden startled short dash. Moorhens do this too but they have their wings outstretched, emitting squawks or squeaks as they go. Moorhens don't have webbed feet so it is all the more surprising that they can propel themselves along the surface. They have very large feet and can walk on lilypads distributing their weight. We had a rare still view of some moorchicks' feet recently. 

A few boats have aquatic animals and birds as their names. At a recent mooring, the boat nearest to us was called "I don't give a" followed by a picture of a duck. It was sporting the classic legless rubber duck on its roof.

While we were getting water near Fradley junction, right beside the Laughing Duck cafe, a group of ducks were on the bank. They were an older family, not quite fully fledged but with enough adult feathers to be preening. We could see the feet then. I do like seeing them scratch their heads with their feet.

After getting water we just reversed back to our original spot, staying another night. Occasionally the duck family visited. We had a walk round a nearby wildlife park and saw golden eyes in the pond there. In the morning we waited for the rain to stop. A cormorant was diving beside us. I have never seen a baby cormorant. The sun came out and immediately there was movement. Other boats appeared just as we were casting off so we ended up in a queue through the lock before the junction. I went ahead and helped the boats ahead through the lock. There was a volunteer on so I only had to operate one side and the swing bridge round the corner was already open. It swings open of its own accord.

Around lunch time we moored up and then saw a familiar looking boat come through the bridge. "Is that an Ortomarine boat?” I said looking at the bow.

Then I recognised the picture on the side. It was Percy the duck. The boat is called Perseverance and the duck is being surprised by the sudden arrival of an electric boat that has arrived silently. 

They pulled in and moored up. This took longer than normal as three or four other boats passed at the same time and a chain got dropped in the canal. Things never go smoothly when it is busy and you are being watched. Shane managed to fish it out for them. We took each other on a tour of our boats. Dave and Roma have a serial hybrid. They had also chosen a layout to suit their family and had a few different features to accommodate their visitors, like an extra toilet and bunk beds. Roma had helped clean Bartimaeus before it went on re-sale. We gave her very belated thanks. We had a great chat with them, but they weren't staying. They had new guests the next day so bade us farewell to head for a marina.

We were very happy with stay where we were. A moorhen family with tiny chicks live right opposite us. The chicks sit on reeds waiting to be fed or follow a parent around.

This morning I woke early and in the quiet, the moorhen seemed unafraid and I  got a great close up view of the unfeasibly large feet as it came to explore on the bow.