Inside the nesting colony
Hello flamingo followers. It's been a while since the last post. I've been gallivanting to Europe to stare at flamingos in Germany but I'm back at WWT for a while now, with lots to catch up on. During my absence the greater flamingos have gone into breeding overload and have laid many eggs, which are now safely in the care of Phoebe in the Duckery. Thanks to the efforts of Mark, Phil and co (not forgetting cleaner-cum avicultural dynamo Lydia) in building nests, piling on sand and regulating water levels, the flamingos finally decided (after several weeks of teasing - yes, I am sure that is what they do!) to commence breeding in earnest. So, just a short catch-up post (I did intend to stick these up a while back but got rather swamped in other stuff...) here are a few clips from the colony nest building and generally faffing around at the start of the month.
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDPYLe2O_g']
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5em2RC05UM']
And here is now; with several birds clamped tightly down on their nests. Dare I say pitter patter of tiny grey feet soon? Fingers, toes, and everything else crossable crossed. Good work aviculture people!
It can be hard to work out who's actually the parents of each chick. Whilst it is generally accepted that flamingos are monogamous (at least over the breeding season that is), it is not unknown for birds to form up trios or have more than one partner.
PS: all this breeding activity has got these guys excited too!
