S-Coot-ing along!

We went on our Sunday morning bliphunt walk to Killingworth Lake again, to check on the progress of the coot chicks.

Gosh, they're certainly growing up quickly! We were pleased to see that there are still 6 surviving chicks in this family (out of the original 7) which seems pretty good. They're getting much more independent, happily swimming quite a way from Mum & Dad although they still come back again pretty soon. As we thought last week (see my write-up from then), they do now seem to be using 2 nests when they want a rest - there's no way now that all 6 chicks plus Mum & Dad would fit together onto the original nest at the same time.

At the moment I took the photo for the main blip, the chick was "s-coot-ing" (groan!) along the surface of the water, trying out its stubby little wings - it was so cute to watch. In the extra you can see one chick looking a bit bemused when its sibling suddenly dived under the water. They're all actually now pretty good at diving and often manage to come up with a little morsel to eat, although Mum & Dad still feed them at times as well.

(Please look large at the main blip - it looks so much better that way.)

This afternoon we had a lovely Fathers' Day 4-way Skype chat with all 3 of our sons - one in Edinburgh, one in Bath and the other here in Newcastle. Modern communications do help to make the distances seem smaller and are so super to use during lockdown.