Devon SSSI nature reserve and eco lodges - Maggie's Blog
14 April
Eggs both large and small...
Well, a few days ago we baked the 'swallow return celebration' cake (pic below for those with a strong stomach) and headed off to eat it on the little island on the pond (George's choice and never mind the nettles).
We got the canoe out and set off, noting one of the Canada geese was doing a 'you can't see me if my head is down level with the water' act.
OK, we thought - if we can't see you then you can't see us and we'll just ignore each other. But when we got around the other side of the island we saw we were too late.
There was the bird's mate, adopting the same posture but hunkered down on a nest of sticks.
So we're expecting goslings in about a month. I'll keep you posted. As for the green cake, we voyaged for hours to the other side of the pond and had it there instead.
And now there's another nest - this time in a big clump of sedge in the garden, inconveniently close to the noisy gravel path where the boys stomp along to the greenhouse. It was a dunnock I saw exploding out of the tussock as we went past. We'll do our best to give it some peace, but I daren't tell 3-year-old Euan to stay away - if I point it out he won't be able to resist. He already spends hours waiting for the chickens to lay eggs in the hen house, and those beautiful blue eggs will be irresistible.