Roach and dace in harmony at Shannon Bridge

One of the childish pleasures of boating on the inland waterways is throwing the crusts overboard after breakfast and watching the melee. 

The other morning, moored up at Shannon Bridge, there was a half loaf of stale bread to add to the crusts.

The mallard, of course, were in the front row of the scrum but then, rather strangely, a large white domestic goose turned up and bullied them out of the way. Then a pair of swans came sailing in to put manners on the goose. As the birds grabbed at the pieces of bread crumbs were knocked off them and these were grabbed by fish. Soon the water was boiling as a whole shoal of roach entered the fray.