Model

Having modelled a sheepskin rug yesterday, and the view from Kakanui Point on Tuesday, today Ms Bean is modelling Bortons Pond where we walked this afternoon. She is also showing off her ridge to good effect.

She had just emerged from the water where she'd cooled off by ploughing her head through the shallows: a new Bean-behaviour to savour and enjoy. Presumably it cooled her brain...

There are more and more families with ducklings, goslings, cygnets and Coot chicks scittering about on the water. 

I witnessed a Swamp Harrier (aka Australasian Marsh Harrier) swooping repeatedly on a family of Shoveller ducks out in the middle of the water. The parents flapped and quacked to beat it off, but on its fourth attempt it successfully grabbed a duckling and flew off with it. 

They're between a rock and a hard place: shelter from aerial attack under shoreline vegetation, but make yourself vulnerable to stoats, rats and possums; or stick to the open water and run the risk of the harriers. It's pretty amazing that any babes survive to adulthood...