The heron effect

The heron still inspires fear and aggression even though the cygnets are much bigger than the last time I saw it in action - see the extra for 20th May. When the heron flew nearby, the male swan hissed loudly which was what caught my attention and the cygnets huddled together close to their parents. If you look extremely carefully you should just be able to see six - the sixth has its head just to the right of the far right cygnet.

The memorable thing about today's trip to Blackford Pond was seeing a pair of coots courting each other beak to beak. I love coots as they are so feisty but I've never seen them being romantic before.

I saw one adult little grebe today on its own and even though I stayed around for a while I didn’t see any young, despite being told one was around. It would be good to have some more baby birds on the pond.

My friend SD-Y phoned this morning for the first time since lockdown so we did some mutual commiserating. I feel lucky having a job - it’s about the most normal thing there is at the moment.