Ice

I felt very sorry for the swan on our lake yesterday! He actually has two legs, but obviously he took it in turns to warm each leg up! He and the geese are about the only birds big enough to act as ice breakers, and they can only manage the thinnest ice. The ducks just have to waddle over the ice as best they can, though I have to admit they can get up a fair turn of speed!

The gulls on the other hand look as if they don't care, but as soon as food appears they are a shrieking mass, twisting and turning, diving and snatching at each other in their efforts to get whatever is on offer!

I think of the gulls as the hooligans of the bird world! Mean of me, I know, as birds are just that, birds, and built to keep themselves alive, survival of the fittest/he who gets to the food first!

Its very peaceful, watching the birds, and our ducks and geese are well and frequently fed. They all seem to thrive on white bread! I do wonder sometimes if humans are so very different? (not the white bread bit, the behaviour!)