Aldcliffe kindergarten

Friday eve.
After a few days of work/domestic related obstacles I finally managed a quick tea-time visit.
The most notable thing was the appearance of many young birds - lapwings in particular seem to have done reasonably well at hatching decent broods, though of course it's early days...
The tufted duck bachelor party now includes 5 birds at Freeman's Pools and the drake shoveler is still present, though looking rather tatty. 2 LRP present.
Fledged broods of blackcap, whitethroat, willow warbler and robins etc were encountered along the cycle track and a little owl was on the receiving end of 2 very agitated lesser whitethroat on the upper path.
The coot pair on Darter Pool still have 2 very healthy looking young.

Saturday morning.
Yet more lapwing sprogs about the place, though I'm not sure how well the maize-field broods will fare following a chemical spraying this morning. No sign of any oystercatcher chicks yet despite a number of pairs.
Confirmation of successful breeding by the LRPs again, though I could only see one chick - hopefully others have hatched and were simply keeping hidden.
The coot pair at Bank Pool still have their 2 young despite my fearing the worst last week.
A lesser whitethroat was in full song in Freeman's Wood.