We’re not sure how many moorhen chicks there are, but there are at least three. They’re getting bigger, less like sootballs as they start to develop proper feathers.
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Owlets
The first egg has hatched and there’s a little pink wriggly thing under the mother.
Even before the egg was hatched the owlet and mother were talking to each. Here you can hear them chittering away the night before: when the mother moves you can see the cracked egg on the right!
Update 28 May. Now there are two owlets, clear to see as the mother briefly left the nest.
Update 29 May. Now there are two owlets. Not sure where the adult male is today. There is spare food on the floor of the nest box so the family aren’t going hungry.
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Not long now
Three days to go before the first egg is due to hatch. The mother is being so careful looking after the clutch.
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Bored
The rain has meant the male can’t go out, so he’s bored. He’s decided to stand on the female’s back.
Fifteen minutes later and he’s still there.
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Sootballs
A pair of moorhens have secretly made a nest and we now have seven (or eight) little ‘sootballs’ on the pond.
The male is on the bank on the left and the female in the reeds on the right. Definitely eight!
Covered in black fluff and quite vulnerable to predators
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TWEET TWEET TWEET
Found the cause of tweeting in the shed.
Five hungry little robins.
Update 15 May. Success as all five fledge and leave the nest.
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Eggs
The female’s sitting down a lot.
She appears quit content Tada! This is why.
One egg Over the next few days more appear.
Two eggs 
Three eggs 
Five eggs 
Six eggs 
Seven eggs That should be all. It’s more than we normally have and they probably won’t all hatch, and the ones that do certainly won’t all survive.
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First cuckoo flower of spring
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Not so many this year, perhaps due to the long wet winter.
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All quiet
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Category: The PondSpring is late, the pond is still full and not much is growing yet.
The water is nice and clear thanks to all the rain
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New owls
Last month a lone female took a liking to the new owl box and quickly settled in. Not long after, she started bringing a fella back and they are now officially a couple. No signs of eggs yet but it shouldn’t be long.
Two new barn owls: male on the left and female on the right 19 March 2023. Having set up a third camera on the ledge we’ve managed to work out the leg ring numbers on each owl. The male is a young barn owl, hatched last year at a site five miles from here, and the female much older, almost five years old and has come from a site about nine miles away.
Part of one leg ring (upside down but legible) 
One owl posing for a leg ring photo in front of the camera.
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That’s no barn owl
A tawny owl takes an interest in the nest box but realises it’s already occupied.
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Valentine’s Day
And the frogs and toads are gathering. The toads have appeared first, in great numbers, as they head towards the pond. Some can’t wait until they get there.
Two common toads can’t wait until they get to the water. 
Lots of frog spawn in the small pond, 19 February 2024. 
Common toads and strings of newly-laid toad spawn, 20 February 2024. 
Two common toads and a smooth newt, 20 February 2024. A gang of male common frogs writhing around a lone female (somewhere in the middle).
