‘Punk ducks’ pay a visit
THERE was great excitement in our house just six weeks before the Manchester Punk Festival with a ‘punk rock’ duck appearing on the local lodge.
For those of you who don’t know, our lodge is a man-made lake, created to provide water to a mill that was demolished a long time ago.
Generally, we have mallards, swans, Canada geese, moorhens and coots on the lodge.
They are all lovely and welcome on our bit of water, but it’s great when a beautiful newcomer pops in for a visit.
I counted 10 goosanders on the lodge earlier this week and they are fairly easy to spot because of their distinctive faces.
From a distance their heads look almost squashed compared to the local mallard gang.
They have streamlined heads with long, narrow bills, these bills contain saw-like teeth, making them good for grabbing and gripping – goosanders are known as sawbills.
In fact, the whole body of this bird is streamlined so it can dive superbly well in the hunt for fish.
They are also extremely good-looking ducks, males are white with dark green heads, black backs and red bills.
Their sides and breasts often have a pink glow.
Females are grey, with a gingery or reddish-brown head and a white throat.
Those colourful heads, with their spikey backs, do give a bit of a punky impression to goosanders, a little bit Siouxsie and the Banshees to those who remember them.
It was the females I spotted first, standing out with their red heads from all the surrounding quackers.
I counted about five pairs of males and females, in Europe these flocks can add up to thousands of birds.
A lot of our goosanders are native birds in the north west, in other areas of the UK they fly home in spring and return for a warmer winter.
The native birds nest in holes in riverbank trees.
It really makes my day when I spot something slightly out of the ordinary while I am out and about and now spring is on the way it’s a great time to see that.
Back to the Banshees, we were discussing starting a social media campaign to get people involved in looking out for wildlife.
I think I was being ribbed when I suggested Punks for Pollinators but it’s not a bad idea.
The Manchester Punk Festival over the Easter weekend will be a great opportunity for everyone to wander around the city centre recording bees and other insects on various plants that spring up on walls and in cracks in the pavement.
The Manchester bee has been adopted by the festival for shirts and hoodies, so watch out for them too.
Over the spring bank holiday, Strummercamp at Oldham Rugby Club, is in a wonderful wildlife setting surrounded by woodland and beautiful flowers.
It’s a great place to enjoy a wide range of music and to wake up and listen to the songs of the local birds.
Again there will be plenty of pollinators and punk rock wildlife all around my tent.
Pollinators are declining in numbers so any help they can get is welcome, even from some unlikely sources. »»To become a member of the Trust go to the website at www. lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust. org.uk.