Fouettes

I saw my first speckled bush cricket nymph of the season on a stitchwort flower this morning and my first banded demoiselles by the Stort at Parndon this afternoon. Nice to see sparrows with their beaks full of mayflies in the beautiful hawthorn blossom along the towpath. 

We saw the pen and cob swimming by the little bridge from the northerly bank and I was convinced that when we got to the nest by the southerly bank we'd see cygnets. I was wrong. She's still sitting and we were lucky that she decided to turn her five eggs as we passed. Swans and other birds turn their eggs to distribute the heat evenly and to prevent the egg membrane sticking to the shell.