Birdwatch at Arundel Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
As I was running along a ditch-lined road on my evening jog the other day, a Mute swan ( with partner and four fluffy grey cygnets) decided I may pose a threat and launched towards me, hissing and delivering a peck to my arm.
I carried on running, safe in the knowledge that this was all a rather heroic paternal bluff on the swan's part and would deliver little worse than a scratch to my arm at the worst. But how would I have re-acted if it had been a red fox growling angrily at me in defence of its young?For full column, see West Sussex Gazette September 13.