I Was Going To Call This Post "FUTILITY" but........

Its now 4 days since the Great Crested Grebes decided to lay an egg on what we thought was going to be a breeding platform, but then on Saturday a first egg was laid and then lo and behold on Sunday another egg was seen although they didn't seem to be paying much attention to them.  Then at about midday on Sunday they decided to pay a bit more attention to the nest when the mother of  all intense rain showers occurred.  The sky went from Clear to White Cloud to Grey Cloud to you couldn't see the bloody sky because of the heaviest burst of rain that it has been my pleasure not to be in.

After the rain I would have put money on the nest disintegrating but to my amazement it was still there over an hour later and three days on it is still afloat, but, I have this feeling that its demise is as inevitable as the Titanics from the second the lookout  in the Crows nest shouted "Iceberg".  Its only redeeming factor is that it is in the middle of the pond where it can see the Otters coming from all directions !!  The Otter has already passed it a couple of times but obviously its waiting for its "food to be cooked".  Actually they are probably just beginners at the game and if they had played their cards right like Sofia is going to they could have been set up in a nice little semi detached supplied by their local Council.  Hopefully they will succeed as its been a while (will have to ask Alan when the last success was) since the pond saw the little pitter patter of obvious "Toon" fans (black and white, get it).  Here is a couple more pictures taken in the last couple of days of this daring couple and their possible offspring (anticipated birth date 20th July) so start thinking of presents now.

Great news, a first for Big Waters.  As Alan J and myself were in the main hide yesterday, from out of the NW corner a line of ducklings appear and we both started counting them, we both reached the figure of 11 when Alan said "They are Gadwalls, not Mallards" so I grabbed the camera and took a few pics.  They then went straight to the reeds in front of the hide and were not seen again yesterday.  Today all we saw was the adult female who only gave us a 10 second glimpse then flew back into the reeds, hopefully to be with her young ducklings.  These are the first ever Gadwall to breed at Big Waters so if anyone sees them please put it in the book or send an email.

Finally, yesterday Alan did the Constant Effort and I was assisting as usual by holding things (up), twisting the odd net, breaking the odd pole, losing the odd tie but otherwise being very helpful.  Another birder came into the hide and we mentioned that we had caught a Sedge Warbler that had previously been in France.  The birder who shall remain anonymous to protect his stupidity  identity then asked the obvious question


HOW DO YOU KNOW IT WAS FROM FRANCE


Pick the answers they were given and it wasn't c.

a.   It tweeted in a French Accent

b.  It said "bonne journée, je viens de Strasbourg, en France"

c.  It had a ring on its leg which said Strasbourg