Two families of greylags visiting Helena

Early in the afternoon we drove out of Stroud’s Golden Valley and headed towards the river Severn, to visit the lake, in the grounds of Frampton Court, the big manor house of Frampton on Severn. The weather was set fair with a fair degree of sun between scudding clouds. It is our place for peace and quiet and tranquility in the hands of nature. Few people visit the grounds so that we generally just commune with the wildlife and some ancient breeds of sheep being reared on the estate’s farm and park land.

The lake is large enough for many flocks of birds to live in balance on both the land and the water. At them moment there are a flock of barnacle geese, about fifty swans of varied ages, a smaller flock of greylag geese, and several oystercatchers which have reportedly just produced offspring. I saw a kingfisher, a pair of common terns, four cormorants, the Ross’s goose (a blow in a few years ago from somewhere in the north Americas apparently), as well as ducks and coots. 

As we walked along the edge of the lake, I started to photograph several barnacle geese with their goslings which were wading in and out of the water. Helena walked on to find a place to place her blanket as she likes to sit and read, and occasionally lie down and ‘rest’ with her eyes closed!

When I caught up with her I saw that she had gone to the small promontory which sticks out a bout thirty yards into the lake, providing a fine viewpoint and location for photography. At the moment the lake is very deep following the rather wet winter and spring, so that the level is high and part of the promontory is flooded. But as I approached from the main meadow of the estate between the big house and Court Lake, as it is named, I saw a small family of greylag geese had settled in at a good point for them to be able to wade into the lake from the bank.

It was a lovely sight and I was quite happy to stand with my camera and watch the the goings-on. As i waited another p[air of greylags brought their five goslings from the shelter meadow under a big tree and proceeded towards Helena’s reading spot. Eventually they joined up with the other pair of adult greylags and their four goslings, and they just sat and rested, although all four of the adults were on continuous high alert for any possible danger. Helena was obviously not in that category being only a few yards away from their resting place.

Eventually they two families decided to head back to feed on the grassy meadow so i was able to pass Helena and go to the end of the promontory, where i could look out over the lake and its several islands. Helena called to me a little later and said that the geese were returning and they settled back into resting mode near her once again. 

I took a lot of photos so I think I will assemble them when I’ve sorted them all out and post into a Flickr gallery, probably tomorrow. In the meantime here is the view of when the two families first converged in front of me.