An Unexpected Visitor

It looked on the forecast that where might be a gap in the rain this morning, so I decided to go over to Pensthorpe. It did rain on the way over, but it was dry for my visit. I walked around the outside, boy was it wet, the river has overflowed a bit in places again and the wildflower meadow paths were soggy to say the least. I looked in on the flamingos, but they were quite quiet - I did take a photo (in extra collage) of the nest and when editing I could just see the tip of an egg. So I decided to pop in to see the cranes next door and on the way there got some aggro from two coots who were guarding their chicks, and I was delighted to see several ducklings playing in a puddle (see extra). The cranes are viewed from a multi windowed hide - I was shocked when a swallow flew in as so unexpected. I spotted two nests, one up in the apex of the hide, but the other was on a ledge at the top of the hide wall, so that was easier to photograph (although never easy in a very dark bird hide). I kept in a corner so as not to interrupt the feeding and the removal of faecal sacs. Before leaving I went to the large netted aviary, but couldn't see the avocet chicks, although I did get a photo of a bearded tit on a buddleia flower (see collage). A lovely morning, then the rain arrived this afternoon. Some exciting tennis today, but it's such a shame that they're only just uncovering the outside courts at tea time and that the main matches this year have in effect been an indoor competition with the roof closed on Centre and No.1 Courts.