Baby Birds (and Crocodiles)

[drplokta]

Our cygnets are starting to grow up.






This is a non-standard duckling, because its mother is mostly black with a white front.




The woodpeckers seem to be spurning the nest-boxes in favour of an actual hole in a tree.




The great crested grebes who were riding on their mother's back recently are now growing up, but still spending 90% of their time letting their parents know that they're starving to death and need to be fed right now.




We finally have some baby coots.




And finally, we seem to have a nasty infestation of crocodiles.

Comments

[fringefaan.livejournal.com]

Are those crocodiles just art, or are they some kind of filtration system too?

[drplokta]

They're bales of barley straw, which is supposed to leach nutrients out of the water and inhibit the growth of algae and duckweed.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

IIRC, barley straw releases hydrogen peroxide, which kills algae.

I suspect people would be far less keen to use it if this were widely known...

I often wonder if fish like swimming in dilute bleach!

http://www.bradshawsponds.co.uk/bradalgae/algaestraw.htm

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Humans swim in dilute bleach (it's the commonest chlorine donor used in British swimming pools). Not that that means we have any right to make fish swim in it of course!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I've got a friend who can't go in swimming pools because of the chlorine.

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Can't say I'm surprised. It's icky stuff.

Was it the hotel at Hickley that had a salt water pool? Much nicer on the eyes (though not the tongue!).

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Hinckley. Not Hickley.

[fringefaan.livejournal.com]

Nor Hickey.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

No, Hinckly wasn't salt water. I don't know which hotel you're thinking of.

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Definitely Hinckley I was thinking of - the web site mentions it.

[fringefaan.livejournal.com]

That's cool that they made them into art too. Very amusing!