Saturday 18th: The Great Crested Grebe pair that had been coming back to the same location for the past 5 years, have successfully hatched two chicks. The female is still sitting on, maybe 3 eggs, or so I have been told.
The pair look very confident and assured with each other. Watching them for half an hour or so, I could see and hear the two adults communicating with each other as they fed the two chicks, hidden amongst the feathers of Mum's back.
This video below is quite long, at 4mins. It shows the male taking time-out to preen himself after taking care of his parental duties. What you don't see (out of shot,top left) is a small group of Canada Geese drawing closer to the female on the nest. The male does make a leisurely drift back while still preening himself. As he gets nearer to the nest, the Geese turn around and swim the other way.
We haven't come across many Dragonflies in the garden this year but in the space of 3 weeks we've found 4 empty Dragonfly larvae cases well away from the pond, as shown below. It looks quite menacing and I'm sure for any aquatic animal it would be a monster. Below is a photo I took showing the size of the larvae. At the top of the head, if you look closely, you can see where the Dragonfly emerged. A few days later, I came across this Dragonfly in the garden. It was sunbathing on the bird table perch. I managed to get very close to it too! A few days ago a moth flew into the living room and clung to the ceiling. Now this was such a unusually marked moth and one I had never seen before that a photo was called for. It is indeed called a "Magpie Moth" for obvious reasons.
