Nervous Mallard duck and her brood keep close to the reedbed at Inverness Campus, hoping to evade the ruthless Herring Gulls that will too readily deplete the numbers of little ones.

Likewise the shy Moorhen hiding in the reeds with her little brood, that are only vaguely discernible in the extra. There was a Lesser Black-backed Gull that was particularly adept at picking them off in previous years.

Many thanks to all of you! Have been somewhat overwhelmed with the response to yesterday's Blip. It's passed my previous records of both stars and favourites by a fair margin... not that those were significant.

And apologies, that's two consecutive days of cuteness, and three of waterfowl. More normal service of ominous clouds and dreich weather will resume shortly.