Chicks !

[Gremlin]

Has anyone noticed there seems to be a lack of chicks this year, been to several water places and all I have seen are one family of 5 egyptian geese checks, birds don't even seem to be sitting on nests.
Predators are taking families enmasse one guy I spoke told me 15 ducklings disappeared
almost as soon as the had hatched, the daytime survivors go overnight
I did finally see some heron chicks yesterday, even they seem to be late in hatching round here.
Garden birds are quite prolific though

 

[gramps]

At my local WWT reserve, chicks of all sorts are suffering predation, ducklings are going to Herons and I've seen Gulls swooping to snatch them from the water ... new Coot chicks in the nest and 48 hours later the nest is empty, even the Greylags are losing early young.
Last year an entire colony of Avocet chicks was wiped out by a Sparrowhawk and most of the Oystercatcher chicks went to Black-backed Gulls.

 

[Gremlin]

Painshill reckon they are losing them to mink overnight too, such a shame, but I've never known it as bad as this year