The ‘new’ pair of coots seem to have calmed down a little and do not seem quite so aggressive towards the other wildlife. I am sure that there is now only 3 surviving moorhen babies at Cogglesford but we still have 7 with the other family further upstream. The 3 baby family also has 6 eggs for the second brood and today I saw 1 of the parents get off the nest and the other get on, so they take it in turns, however I am unsure if the male has a brooding patch so he may just defend the nest as opposed to help incubate the eggs, I am not sure either way. The 7 baby family has started another brood and has just 1 egg so far. A little concerned that this lone egg was left without protection for quite a long time so it was open to magpies etc but it did survive.
‘Blackie’ stayed still long enough for me to get this…
…I also saw a water vole again, probably the same one as the other day, but I hope it was a different one so we could say we have at least 2 
Terry