Look closely....

This isn't the most obvious blip, you need to look closely and it's easier if you go large. Here is a tufted duck family - there were in fact four ducklings, but it was almost impossible to get a shot with all four of them as they kept diving. I'm not sure they were achieving anything useful by diving, such as getting something to eat, but they clearly loved it. I chose this photo as you can see the duckling in the centre of the photo in the middle of a dive. They do a bit of a jump before the dive, I suppose it's easier to go in head first that way. The mother duck kept watch while the young were having fun and we wondered if she could count so that she would know if all her charges were present and correct. This was the first time we had seen this number of tufted ducklings - there is almost always something new to see at Blackford Pond.

As regards the other bird life, all six cygnets were present and correct and bigger. How many can you count in the extra photo? Hint - count the necks. The moorhen was still on the nest in the tree and we saw the coots doing a change over, so hopefully there are eggs at least in that nest. Just one little grebe this week, so no progress there.