New life

The Coots on my local lake had six chicks earlier in the year. All of them were eaten. They built another nest and moved all the old nesting materials to furnish it and started again. Now, I see they’ve moved everything back to where they were last time and four eggs have hatched. There may have been more, but if there were, they have been eaten as well.

I wish them well again.

Yes, I know it looks like there are three, but she’s always sitting on one of them.

The male has spent many days bringing fresh greenery for this nest and an enormous pile has resulted. It’s tiring watching him.

With luck the chicks will survive and grow to look like this:

It’s a pleasure to watch them attempting to feed themselves:

The Moorhens I’ve been watching are now a little larger and look hilarious out of the water:

There are a couple of larger ducklings here, too. As I lie on my belly, and get eye to eye with a duckling, a dog charges up and attempts to attack them. They only just make it into the water with their mother in time. “Have you lost its lead?” I ask nonchalantly, as a man approaches. “No, I’ve got it in my hand”, he says, and then starts to look for a sign saying dogs must be on a lead. There are a dozen of them around the lake and on every entrance. He claims not to be able to see one where his dog attacked the birds.

That’s not really the point, though, is it?

Can we keep top predators out of nature reserves? Unless they’re wild Wolves, of course.