It’s May and chicks are beginning to appear. I’ve been keeping an eye out for not only nests but hungry sounding cheeps coming from bushes and undergrowth. Here are some sightings so far. These cute coot chicks look quite different from their parents.
Here is the parent for comparison.
I’ve seen my first Mallard ducklings these past few days. Here are nine keeping close to Mum at the water’s edge. They are in great danger of being picked off by gulls and other predators.
This Mallard on the river only had three ducklings, here she is with two of them.
This greylag geese pair took their goslings out onto the loch.
A few years ago I was lucky enough to see a pair of dippers feeding their young at the nest in the side of an old bridge. But the chicks never fledged as the nest got predated. This year I returned to the same spot and spotted two adult dippers feeding two rather scraggy looking fledglings at either sides of the bridge. Here is one being fed, perhaps a larva or an aquatic insect.
Its sibling downstream is begging its parent to go and get more grub!
I’ve yet to see goosander chicks being carried along in their parent’s back and also spot crested grebe chicks. Plenty of new sights to encounter, I wonder what else I’ll see.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 