The day started with a couple of newcomers to the Rattlechain lagoon, a pair of greylag geese. Not seen any on here before, and don’t really want to either. The oddest sighting on here apparently was an escaped flamingo from Dudley Zoo which a bird watcher told me about some years ago- don’t know what the outcome was or whether it survived.
Observations have noticed a dramatic fall in birds at the site. Coots from around 65 to now around 25 at most. Geese doing their usual early morning fly out and return at night. Have the birds been scared off by the work or have they perished? Given the amount of craft on the pool it would be easy now to remove any evidence swiftly. We have seen dead birds elsewhere in the area since the works commenced, but they will not receive any post mortem let alone a test for white phosphorus.
The point is these works increase the risk, and the dredging has been demonstrated to have increased mortality in the past on this pool. This is undeniable, though no doubt those at Trinity Street would like to reinvent history as with everything else that they promote. The picture of a swan in a bag, caught by the RSPCA was another PR stunt recently put out in their latest flyer. We called the RSPCA based on the fact that the last pair of swans to attempt to nest on here, before any works had started had seen the male swan dead- later confirmed to have been exposed to white phosphorus.
Later on, (the greylags had gone) Napoleon was up to his old tricks on the causeway path- halfway there now with Bonaparte and the small tipper keeping his advance swift and sure. But then what was I seeing in the distance……..
Napoleon imposter
Who the hell was this guy and what was going on at the beach?
It certainly looked as though two piles of sediment had been tipped on the bank. Was this a floccing test to see if it caught fire? Who knows but it had gone later in the day at the third visit. Should this identical twin remain on site it is going to be difficult to keep tracks with Napoleon, but I will call this one Louis for clarity.
The website now is approahing the magic 100 page barrier. There’s plenty more in draft in one form or another, and some of it will be held back until the time is right.