Spot the fish

If you look really hard, you might be able to see that this little grebe has a small fish in its beak. It's taking it to its nest where the other parent is with their one young. We were amazed at how quickly it could move under water - we reckoned it was swimming under water because it could move so much faster that way. It made quite a number of trips in the time we watched it.

Things looked promising in this nest, but sadly the coot nest on the island seemed to have been partially destroyed - it was much lower than previously, and was in fact occupied by a female tufted duck and two young when we first saw it. At least somebody was making some use of it! The heron was sitting in a tree on the far side of the pond, so maybe it was the culprit.

At first glance it looked as if the moorhens' efforts had also come to nothing as there was no sign of anything on the nest in the tree. However, just before I left I noticed one of the adults taking food to the island, so maybe there are young down at ground level.

The swan family were still at six cygnets thankfully and all looked as if it was going well. The cygnets were spending some time away from their parents and then all coming together again.