Coot (Fulica atra)

The title for today's post was going to be Great Crested Grebe however not long after finding my first GC Grebe nest of the season this little chappy was found ready to leave the nest. My attention was brought to this when I saw one of his siblings in the water. The nest had 4 eggs, a small clutch for Coot.

The Great Crested Grebe nest with 4 eggs

Another 4 egg Coot clutch although the second visit has yet to be made so this clutch could still be incomplete

Moorhen nest laid in the base of a willow tree just above the height of the water. At 7 eggs this is probably a full clutch

The difficulties of recording Long-tailed Tit are seen here. The entrance hole is just about big enough for me to put two fingers inside and feel the young. Unfortunately I am NOT a trained ringer with a pullus endorsement therefore I cannot legally remove the young for counting and inspection so the record will be going down as three+ although there were clearly more than that in there - I could only feel three......