There are three chicks in the Great Crested Grebes' nest at the east end of the island. They came down from their mother's back on to the nest. Although they can swim and dive immediately they can't walk, and crawl on all fours using their wings as front legs.
Their father brought a fish.
A Cormorant watched from a wire basket.
All is still quiet on the nests in the willow at the bridge ...
... and under the Dell restaurant balcony.
The teenage grebe was fishing by itself on the south side of the lake.
The Coots in the Italian Garden fountain brought up their first brood of six in this nest in a clump of irises. When they nested again it was in a different place, but the new family has found the old nest a good place to hang out.
A pair of Coots at the the Vista had just one small chick. It shows how much more dangerous the open lake is than the Italian Garden, where there have now been six successful broods and I have lost count of the number of chicks that have fledged.
The Tufted Duck and her four half-grown ducklings crowded together and preened on a fallen branch by Peter Pan.
The Black Swan came over for some sunflower hearts, but had to share with an Egyptian Goose and a Coot.
The young Lesser Black-Backed Gull was begging plaintively near the Dell restaurant. Its mother was on the shore and ignored its whining.
A young Robin perched on the roots of a tall Dawn Redwood in the Dell.
This one in the Flower Walk is not a regular customer, but was encouraged by seeing Great Tits feeding from my hand and came down too.
Two Hobbies were hunting high over the Speke obelisk. There were no Swifts or House Martins around, so they must have been catching dragonflies of which there are still plenty.
An Emperor caught a midge in the Italian Garden.
Black-Tailed Skimmers mated on the path by the Triangle. When someone blindly trundled a pushchair at them, eight wings leapt into coordinated action and they whizzed gracefully off, still coupled.
A Willow Emerald damselfly perched on an unripe catalpa bean near the Italian Garden.
A Jersey Tiger Moth fed on hemp agrimony flowers in the Dell. When a Honeybee landed too close, it was dismissed with a flick of bright orange wings.
Lovely to see the Hobby!
ReplyDeleteA nice selection of Odonata too.
The Hobbies were staying high up. I suppose there were dragonflies at that altitude, and therefore midges -- but why do they bother to climb that high? I wonder also whether dragonflies catch spiderlings parachuting on silk threads, as Swifts do.
DeleteIt's always much the same picture of a Willow Emerald, but you just have to photograph these lovely creatures.
I suspect they probably do Ralph.
DeleteTo think that anything should be able to catch a dragonfly. It defies the imagination.
ReplyDeleteTinúviel
Several birds can catch dragonflies without even flying, including Great Crested and Little Grebes and Grey Herons. It's all down to the speed at which birds function, unimaginable to our dull senses.
Delete