Swan flotilla

The cygnets on Blackford Pond are now so large that when they go around in a flotilla, they take up quite a lot of the length of the pond. Mum was leading them, Dad was on the island chilling. I met up with T for a picnic lunch to catch up on what was happening on the pond. We saw the adolescent moorhen chick who seemed now to be independent of its parents. The other moorhen pair were building a new nest, and we couldn't tell what had happened to the previous nest which they were sitting on when we last visited. Moorhens certainly seem to be into nest building, but few of the nests actually lead to anything sucessful.

The single little grebe was still there and we thought it might still be joined by a mate as they seem to breed quite late. No coots, but a couple of female and one male tufted ducks although no young, also quite a few mallards, with possibly one or two juveniles, and the usual herring and black headed gulls. There were also a huge number of rats - we've never seen so many before, it's quite worrying. We were also concerned at the amount of weed/algae on the pond, and the milky colour and opacity of the water at the west end of the pond. Maybe these things are contributing to the lack of sucess in (bird) breeding at the pond.