Those baby Dabchicks had me worried this morning as I only saw 2 of them. This would not normally have bothered me straight away but both parents were with them so it looked like only 2 had survived the night. After wandering down past the Mill and back my fears seemed to be confirmed because again there was only 2 babies but this time only with 1 parent. Walking about 100 yards upstream I saw the other parent and then the other 2 babies – I was relieved that all four are still ok 
I think they just like giving me a worrying time
The Coot is still happily sitting on its nest and the other adult and teenager were a little firther downstream.
I found a better photo of ‘one eye’ than I had posted the other day so this is for ‘one eye’…
…its not quite the same without him 
Terry
Hi Terry,
I something quite unusual on my way back along the river today (I’d seen you approx 15 minutes earlier). A female (Brown)Cuckoo (someone else saw it too) was on the River Slea between the Gym Bridge and just beyond the sluice gate going towards the Mill. It was sitting on what was probably an inverted dead duck? and looked to be feeding. My first thought was it was a bird of prey but my mind was soon made up otherwise. In addition it was right next to a lot Mallards/Chicks and Moorhen/Chicks who did not seem fazed by it too much. I looked for you briefly but to no avail so I don’t know if you saw the Cuckoo too. I did not see the other parent Dabchick and chick so I only saw 3 chicks and one adult in total.
Regards Graham
Hi Graham, how very intriguing, wish I had seen that. We saw both Dabchick adults but only 3 babies so we may have lost 1 but its too early to tell for sure.
Terry