And now moorhen chicks

The first moorhen chicks for this year have been born. There are three in the brood and one was right in the centre of the moat - a bit reckless if you ask me. The other two were keeping well hidden in the reeds. Unlike ducklings who immediately start swimmming strongly and feeding, moorhen chicks seem much more helpless in their first few days and are fed by the parents.

Bunch of ducklings

I always enjoy seeing a brood of ducklings in a pile on the lawn - here's a picture from yesterday.

More ducklings

Hatched today I think. There's ten of these which added to the previous brood of twelve makes a running total of 22. The record was I think 52 in 2007 but that would take some beating. In any case twenty odd ducklings is about the most the moat can sustain at any one time. These ten are keeping close to mum whilst the original twelve are whizzing about the moat feeding.

Magpie mobbing

I was watching a fledgling songthrush (pictured) when it suddenly ran into the long grass for cover and I could hear blackbird alarm calls. The cause was a magpie in the vicinity. I walked over to where the magpie was, to find it being mobbed by the thrush parent plus two blackbirds in a concerted attack. It was just about standing its ground but my appearance tipped the balance and it went away to find easier prey. I was just intrigued to see a joint attack by two different, albeit closely related, species

Ducklings!

We arrived home after a weekend away to find the first ducklings of the season - twelve ducklings that look a couple of days old rather than newly hatched. There is a drake on duty but also a drake that the female is not happy to have around and there have been some mallard fisticuffs as she and the preferred drake chase him away. The ducklings are at the flycatching phase and that is one of my favourite sights as they paddle like mad and stretch their necks trying to gobble up small flies flying just above the water.

Newts

I have only once seen a newt in the moat before yesterday when I came across two together swimming around a floating reed. I have been surprised that I haven't seen them more often. I think they were common newts but I can't be certain as the size and other features were not easy to see whilst they were under water.

Bee Identification

Not at all easy I find but I had a go today when I found separately two dead bees in the garden. I am pretty sure one is a social bumblebee and one a cuckoo bumblebee but I don't feel confident I have nailed down the species in either case. I think the social bumblebee (on the left above) is either Bombus pratorum or Bombus terrestris. The cuckoo bumblebee (so named because they steal the nests and worker bees of social bumblebees)looks like it is either Bombus bohemicus or Bombus vestalis. Thanks to Mike Edwards and Martin Jenner who wrote the Field Guide to Bumblebees used to try and ID these bees