A Nest by the Tree House
Posted: 26 April 2022
If you followed your way around the island in Part Six of the Tour of the Grounds made last week then you will know that we were aware of the the nest that had appeared on the island facing the cottages next door. As a result of the discovery the wildlife camera was set up to capture the goings on around the nest.
As usual with our videos, a number of the captures have been merged into a single video. The earliest, shown in the first few seconds, was captured at 19:05 last Saturday evening. It's really only there to set the scene as we quickly move to a sequence captured at 21:37 that night where it appears that our bird is recovering from a surprise. Perhaps its movement had triggered the camera and it was surprised by the red glow of the LEDs that allow overnight filming. After that comes a sequence of captures starting on the Sunday morning at 07:08. It shows the gander going through the process of turning the eggs.
At about 1:30 into the video we see "Daddy Goose". It's the only clip in the 160 captures that were triggered in the thirty six hours that show the male bird. Often it seems that it was just the high winds and movement of the Periwinkle that set the camera running that many times. With the departure of the male the gander begins to tidy up the nest, pushing the down about that lines the nest.
At 2:03 the bird is sitting with neck erect, but there's no obvious reason for it behaving like that. After another 10 seconds we're looking at a cpature made at 09:08. Once again the gander is turning the eggs.
At 3:08 we've reached 12:42 on Sunday. There's more egg turning being performed. This goes on for over three minutes before the gander suddenly leaves the nest. At 6:30 a full fifteen minutes after leaving the nest the gander returns, but she doesn't sit down on the eggs. She spends another minute beside the nest preening herself then steps onto the nest and spends a further two minute before finally sitting on the eggs.
We're now 9:48 into the video and we move to 15:01 on the Sunday afternoon. There's another spell of egg turning following by time spent recovering any down within reach of her sitting position that seems to have blown out of the nest.
At 11:41 into the video you'll notice the sun has gone. We've moved to Monday at 12:56. The mother is there and the eggs are exposed. tidy up of the nest and the bird departs again.
At 12:25 we've moved on again to 18:07. Now the gander is concealing the eggs before departing again. At 12:50 we see the gander back on the nest but it is now 18:33 and the camera was not triggered by her arrival so we can only guess at how long she was away.
We only stay for a few seconds before moving to a collection of night- time captures. The first three 20 second clips follow on from each other almost immediately and started at 00:52 on Tuesday morning. You will be immediately aware that the goose has been disturbed and is standing over its nest while a cat looks on from the Tree House. Finally the cat departs behind the reed screens. That sequence is followed by another consisting of two clips that run together and were captured a little over five minutes later. Again the cat is seen beside the reed screens but when it finally leaves it does so towards the left, apparently dissuaded from attacking the nest by the goose.
The final few seconds are from 08:29 that morning well after the sun had risen.
