Suddenly lots of baby birds have appeared in the nests we’ve been watching for weeks on our local pond. A few days ago, everything was still quiet as the mother birds sat on their nests. Now there are six gorgeous cygnets on the lake, and three baby coots in their high-rise nest near the shore. They lean over the edge of the nest to watch their parents swim away in search of food, and they keep tumbling into the water. Luckily they are able to climb up again.

We took some of Bob’s home-made sourdough bread, cut up into tiny chunks, to feed to the new arrivals. The parent coots came on shore with alacrity to get the bread and went straight back to the nest to feed it to the little ones. It was thrilling for Bob to see the cootlings eating his home-made bread for their breakfast.