Below: mother and chicks - not sitting on mum's back - but then carrying five is a big task. As soon as they're ready, they're off and in the water, parents close at hand to feed and protect them.
Below: mother gathers them all in...
Below: father surfaces with a morsel for one of the five... these are testing times for evolutionary biology. Can the female find a mate fit enough to keep coming up with the food needed to keep the entire brood alive? Which of the chicks will fight hard enough to get more than its fair share of the food being provided.
Below: further on towards the north end of the ponds, I catch my first sight of this year's clutch of cygnets, a day or two old, following their mother out of the rushes, in which lies the nest where they were hatched.
Below: a better view of the flotilla. Seven today - seven last year. But of last year's seven, only four survived. Which ones won't survive this year? Let's hope they all do well.
Below: dad identifies himself as 2KC1, back again. This couple have been coming here each year since they were juveniles. He doesn't feed the young (unlike the flesh-eating grebes, where the young aren't yet smart enough to catch small fish or larvae, the cygnets eat vegetation, and have litte trouble feeding themselves as soon as they are hatched). Nor does he swim in close formation to the brood; he's happy sunning himself, watching his family from a distance.
This time last year:
The year of the grebe
[the black-necked grebe chicks hatched a week earlier this year]
This time two years ago:
Jeziorki birds in the late May sunshine
This time three years ago:
Making sense of Andrzej Duda's win
This time four years ago:
Call it what it is: Okęcie
This time five years ago:
Three stations in need of repair
This time six years ago
Late evening, Śródmieście
This time seven years ago:
Ranking a better life
This time nine years ago:
Paysages de Varsovie
This time ten years ago:
Spring walk, twilight time
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