At the peak there were 6 pairs of Shelducks at Newport of which 4 produced young.An initial brood of 6/7 at the end of May soon disappeared. In early June a new brood of 8 was down to 2 within a week, & these are also gone. More optimistically a brood of 10 on June 7 was down to 6 the next day, but has since lost no more & more surprisingly a brood of 7 on the 11th has lost none as of this morning.
How any ever survive is always a surprise to me as they run around on the mud just metres from a flock of c100 preening large gulls, including up to 30 Great Black Backs. But then I've no idea what happens to them - it's rare that more than a couple survive to fly. I've never seen one being killed.
Also this morning, somewhat unseasonally, 3 Little Egrets (1 with orange feet) & a Kingfisher.
