One little humbug

I managed a brief stop at the artificial island on my way to the sanctuary this afternoon. I would have preferred some overcast weather but unfortunately it was quite sunny and I could barely see what I was photographing because of the reflection of the sun on my glasses and on the camera screen, despite my attempt to shield them with one hand. On top of that someone stopped and started talking to me about the nesting birds at the island. I normally don't mind this when nothing is happening but this lady had chosen a very inconvenient moment as the swan had just stood up revealing her 8 eggs and I'd just spotted the head of the Great Crested Grebes' chick among the parent's feathers! I managed to keep a polite conversation going while taking alternating shots of both birds but the whole time my inner voice was shouting to her to go away and leave me to get on with what I was doing.

Several of the photos I was able to take were not too bad but unfortunately those of both Grebe parents and their chick were not as good I'd hoped, partly because I couldn't always see well enough what I was photographing and partly because I'd been quite distracted by the conversation. Fortunately I'd managed to concentrate a little more after this lady had gone and there were a few better photos among those that I was able to take when I was alone again.

According to the calculations when eggs had been laid, the first Great Crested Grebe egg could already have hatched yesterday and it may well have done so, but of course I cannot be certain of this as the Grebe on the nest didn't get up yesterday afternoon and I also didn't spot any sign of the chick then.

It's been 6 months now since my bunny Rosie was spayed and an appointment has been made on the 30th April for a checkup. I probably probably won't be able to stop worrying about it until the vets will (hopefully) confirm that there aren't any new growths and all is still well with Rosie.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and stars on my Coots blip from yesterday.