The coots are growing well...

What a change in the 7 weeks we’ve been chronicling the growth of the coot chicks!

We went back to the lake this morning for our weekly check on their progress and were delighted to find that the coot family still have their 6 chicks (they lost the 7th one in the first week but seemingly none since). As you can see they’re getting quite big now and they don’t worry about being quite a distance from their Mum & Dad. This one had just emerged from the water with a piece of pondweed as you can see. They do however come back to the parents from time to time for a bit of love and to be fed an extra tasty morsel.

We’d not seen the cygnets for several weeks but they were around again this morning – although we only saw 4, as opposed to the 6 we saw last, on 24th May (seen in the extra collage there - we’ve no idea where they’ve been in the meantime!). They’ve grown a lot too: the extra shows a back view of one with what looks like a trendy green hat! – a fragment of pondweed stuck there after a dive.

(As usual, they're best viewed large.)