RSPB Old Moor, 10.40 a.m., 39ºF, 4ºC, Reedbed Hide: We passed through a snow shower on the way here but as we walk to the Reedbed Hide there are only a few sleety spots in the wind.
Two mute swans are upending by the reeds as they make their way to their nest site, a mound of reeds.
A great crested grebe motors over towards the swans, calling as he nears them (judging by the large cheek frills, this is the male). It’s a surprisingly loud call for what I think of as one of the quietest of wildfowl. My bird book describes the grebe’s spring calls as ‘a series of guttural far-reaching “rah-rah-rah” notes’. But, instead of skirmishing with the swans, as we thought he might do, he dives near them. Perhaps when he saw how large they are in close up he decided not to escalate the situation.
Mid-lagoon, two male and one female tufted ducks are diving.
I love the old nature terms you’re using. I know “race” but am wondering about the meaning of “hide.”
That’s our word for what you’d call a blind: Bird blind, also called a “bird hide”, used to conceal the observer when watching or photographing birds or other animals.
I’m fascinated by place names and dialect words, so I like to ginnels and snickleways (= paths between houses, Yorkshire dialect) of language.
Oh, yes, as in a hunter’s deer blind. The language of place is so rich over there. I think Robert Macfarlan has tried to preserve some of it. Thank you for the new words.