Moorhens

After a slow start to the breeding season there are at least five moorhen chicks being raised on the moat. All five were on the front lawn today under the care of two adults and a juvenile. At one point when there was one adult and three chicks two magpies landed presumably to snatch a chick or two. The adult stood on no ceremony but charged, beak outstretched, at the nearest magpie, who, despite his size advantage cleared out pretty quickly. I went out and ensured both magpies were gone. The picture below is of three of the chicks waiting on a rush.

Even more ducklings...

We are now up to just over 40 ducklings with a further 12 born a few days ago. We shall see if these stay around or not - so far we have not this year had new ducklings around for more than a few days after hatching. However water moat levels are almost back to normal after the exceptional rain we have had in the last couple of months so maybe that will help.

More ducklings

A third set of ducklings for this year have been born in the last couple of days. Neither of the first two broods stayed around but with more water in the moat I'm hoping these will do. Thirteen this time means about 30 for the year so far - still well short of the 50+ recorded a few years ago.