Birds Of A Feather

Another new brood of 10 hatched yesterday, this takes the known total figures to date to 48. Exactly half have been lost to predators at the point of writing this post.

The Spare drakes on the river have probably unwittingly caused some of the losses by harassing and pouncing on the new mothers, forcing them to flee and leave their young open to attack by crows.

Sometimes it's nice to see mothers who allow their broods to mingle with others without getting into a fight over it. 

Yesterday I witnessed at close hand how beautiful this can be, when a mother of 7 met up with the new mother and brood of 10. 

Popeye is also getting ready for the new arrivals next week and is becoming more stand - offish.