Good weekend, 17-19.5.2025.

 Friday went over to the Gorton ressers again to see how the Great Crested Grebes were getting on.

Weather was a bit dull on the day, but brightened up later on. 

Mum still sat on her nest.

You can just see a babies head popping out from the mum's back.

The 7 swan chicks were still doing well and staying close to mum and dad.

Even though the sailing club was very busy, the swans sat there and wasn't moving for them, must have thought it's their place!.

There is a notice near this run off "Don't feed the wildlife near here as it's endangering them" This mother coot can't read hey.

Monday went to see how the swans were and was upset to see only 5 there, then when I started to feed them, one popped up on the mothers back so perhaps there was two on her!, so I was feeling better then.

The Great Crested Grebes were out and about with their babies on their backs

Could only see two babies on the day, but perhaps more on her back.

Coot babies doing well, the parents can get quite aggressive so nothing else bothers them.

Back home my bush in the back garden is full of little white flowers and the bees love it, there was at least a dozen white tailed bees on my side, and there is my mate Chrisopher the singer trying to capture them on his side with his phone.

See him singing on Tuesday's at Pear Mill in Stockport and The Bridge View Cafe in Portland Basin in Ashton on Thursdays.

Check it out here.

Didn't know there were White Tailed Bee's (Bombus Lucorum) check it out on the internet!.

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Gorton Ressers again,14.5.2025.

 Has my mate wasn't going too Morrison's today, I went over to the Gorton lower resser again to see what babies there might be and to my amazement there was the resident swans  with seven chicks!.

Their nest must have been well hidden!, because these chicks are quite big.

This short video shows on of the parents treading the water to disturb the sediment on the bottom so the chicks can get to the crustaceans and bugs from out of the mud!.

Back on dry land for the afternoon nap whilst mum and dad do their ablutions.

 The coot family were doing well out in the open with parents feeding the babies with weed from the bottom.

Then it was round to the Great Crested Grebe nest to see how mum was doing on her nest. Nice well hidden spot, unless you have a big zoom camera.

After a long time studying her, has she seemed to be making a lot of movement, I was rewarded with this sight of a chick poking it's head out from between her wings!!.

That's it, if you've never seen a grebe chick before, it looks like a humbug with black and white stripes down it's neck  

 Then there was another one.

Though I stayed quite a while afterwards, only saw another one that actually came out from under her but didn't manage to snap that one!.

Just to show you what the young ones look like, here are a couple of pictures I took a few years ago. the young ones ride on her back until they get to big and heavy and she decides she's had enough!.

Dad doing a good job of feeding the babies, this one had 6 babies, 3 on each side of mum.

Then it was over to Morrison's for lunch, a bit later than usual not that it mattered as I wasn't meeting anyone today.

All the cabinets are being changed at the moment though out the store and I was told there was no fish and no cheese toasties so I went for a sandwich and coffee, and the assistant said "for another 25p you can have the meal deal which means you can have any cake too!" so got the deal!

Was sorry afterwards has my stomach doesn't cope well with eggs! and I finished in the toilet before coming home!, won't be having that again, nice as it was!.

Another good day.

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Gorton Ressers again, 13.5.2025.

 Went to the Gorton lower ressers again yesterday to see how the Grebes were getting on.

It was a nice warm sunny day again, we are certainly getting our share of the weather in Manchester at the moment!.

How lucky to have this on my doorstep.

The female is still sat on the nest and no sign of any babies yet.

The resident male swan was chasing an interloper all round what he regards as his territory.

All fluffed up and ready to stand up to anything threatening his mate.

The coot chicks I mentioned on my last post are doing well and staying near mum. 

Mum was taking sticks out of the nest and rearranging them, didn't seem much wrong to me but perhaps she was showing the chicks how it's done, perhaps that's my over active imagination though. 

Still a bit of colour in the nest.

Soon take to the water, faces only a mother could love!.

Starting to get some Canadian geese chicks now

If you see these geese with lots of chicks they might not belong to the adult with them, because they have a creche system and they all take turns to guard the brood!.  

Very large thirsty dog having a drink!.

Back home, in the evening it was a clear sky and this was the scene from my back door.

Though the very large conifers.

Then zoomed in!.

Alfie is eating well at the moment, must be the warm weather giving him plenty of energy, you wouldn't thing a small tortoise could eat all that would you, but he does, he is now 724 Grams, so put on 100 grams since I got him. 

Jackdaw, they just love fat balls!.

 Today me and the gang went to Dunelm stores at the Snipe again instead of our usual Morrison's on Tuesdays it was very nice and not as busy as our first venture there on Saturday.

We ordered our food separately and whilst we had our drinks and chats the food arrived piping hot within about 10 minutes and very nice it was too. The only thing was they don't do a side order of chips, they said they do waffle chips but were out of them today, might try them next time.

They do hot meals as well, but who wants that on hot days anyway!.

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