Meal time isn't a time for play

Today I was fortunate to see the Weweia (Dabchick) family; or one of them. The two chicks looked very young, so this may be a second family. The parents were swimming fast when on the surface and dived every ten seconds or so and surfaced fairly soon with small bits of weed with which to feed the chicks.

The chicks had to paddle very hard to keep up with the parental speed, including under water. It happened quite often that one of the chicks would be off to the side, or behind when the parent surfaced and would not get the morsel.

The checks are vulnerable to attack from the many Australasian Coot on the lake. Karoro (Blackbacked gull) also attack them. And the lake has a very large eel population, despite the attentions of Karuhiruhi (Pied Shag). That there seems to be more than one family does suggest that they are growing to adulthood.