Up Periscope

The sun put his hat on and Basil and I returned to Nanpantan Reservoir to find out what the grebes have been doing.

Two have hatched, viz photo. And two eggs remain in the nest (see extra). A later clutch presumably. One egg has definitely been lost, but four chicks are more than enough to care for.

I'm told that the baby grebes are called humbugs. It should be self evident why.

I stayed quite a while to watch even venturing down the steps and into the overflow stream, but Daddy, who was on  nest duty, became alarmed and slid into the water, leaving the eggs exposed. He's the one carrying the grebettes. But he did go back to the nest. Mum relieved him five minutes or so later.

Basil was so patient,  waiting in the sun. We went to Jubilee Wood just up the road from the reservoir so that he could have a run in the cool. He has to be on a lead around the reservoir.