It was a cold bright morning foretelling Autumn. Caroline & I went for a walk by some local lakes, formerly gravel extraction pits, now converted into fishing lakes.
However, our agenda concerned not fish but birds. Caroline had spotted skeins of geese flying
over and thought they might be stopping off at the lakes, along with other
Autumn migrants.
Passing the rumbling gravel conveyor belt, we turned towards
the fishing lake, but there was a sign:
‘Bird scaring devices are in use here. This is to stop the cormorants eating the
fish.’ Then, as a preventive against the
tutting of nature lovers, ‘It is our duty to prevent stress to the fish.’
‘Until they get dragged through the water by a hook through
their lip…’ we muttered.
So now we were disappointed, expecting to be disturbed by the
explosions of a crow scarer and see no birds at all.
Almost immediately, however, a cormorant surfaced serenely;
further off, a family of great crested grebe was diving. Herons stooped
patiently on the bank and at intervals swam mallards, coots, swans and
black-headed gulls.
We walked the whole length of the lake undisturbed by any
explosion, with plenty of time to admire the birds.
At the head of the lake was a wooden cabin containing a loo.
In I went, but just as I shut the door, there was an
explosion. Out I shot.
Finally the scarer had gone off.
So now we knew exactly which type of bird it deterred – old birds!