Mallardlings!

Warning: overwhelmingly cute in large ("L").

Dramatic day
I visited Mr. Goosle on Eagle Pond first thing with my mother; just as we were about to cross the road, a car zoomed past (overtaking another car very quickly) with its windscreen smashed. "That must have been involved in a crime; its windscreen was totally smashed", I said, "Should we phone the police?". We decided not to; it has just gone through past a speed camera, and we couldn't be certain that it was involved in something... We resolved to act if was saw one of those signs requesting witnesses to an incident in the area.
We spent a little while with Mr. Goosle and the cootlings before going for coffee in Balham; I was pleased to have got my blip so early (Mr. Goosle with his front covered in bright droplets, as though he was mad about diamanté).

This afternoon we decided to go to The Black Lab at Clapham Common to get takeaway coffees to take to the pond. When we arrived, the whole road in front of the café was taped off with lots of police vehicles and officers, and they were marking up the road and taking photographs. I said to one of the officers on the tape "Was there a car incident here? We saw a blue Peugeot with a smashed windscreen racing along past Eagle Pond at about 9.10AM". It turns out that there had been a hit and run, and that was indeed the car involved but they already had the details. Gosh, it feels quite awful to have seen the getaway. We (unfortunately) didn't see the driver (the windscreen was totally broken and not clear) which is the information they wanted from witnesses.

Today's Blip
To more positive matters, my blip! We didn't get as far as Eagle Pond with our coffees because we spied a mother mallard with 14 brand new and tiny mallardlings on Long Pond! 14!? They were so adorable and we spent a long while with them. The mother kept a close eye on me as I crouched nearby taking photographs (with my short 24-70mm lens...).
We also observed some very interesting behaviour: at one stage, once all the ducklings were grazing in the water, the mother mallard got out and flew away at great speed (which was vexing). We saw her zoom across the common and dive down behind the buildings that lay between us and Eagle Pond. About 90 seconds later she returned with a drake in tow, and landed with him by the ducklings, before proceeding to get out and graze nearby. She had gone to fetch her drake to look after the ducklings while she grazed! He was pretty useless and kept drifting away from them, so she returned to the edge above them and quacked determinedly at him until he returned to them. It seems he was more interested in her than the ducklings. Eventually he flew off, and she promptly returned to resume guarding her brood.
One of the ducklings was more sleepy and malcoordinated than the rest; it kept on getting left behind when they moved along the edge slightly as it was always fast asleep. When it woke up, it would stumble and trip its way over to the others before falling asleep again.

They are so adorable; I'll have to check in on them on Wednesday!