Family matters for nature lovers @ Wallington, Northumberland

This pair of Canada Geese are busy chaperoning their goslings on a short saunter in the shade. Their home is on the waterlily covered pond at Wallington, surrounded by enchanting woodland as you can see below.

Gosling

Another family of Canada geese can be found on one of the other ponds which is located amidst the mature woodland  which is bursting with huge oaks, beech and chestnut trees. Red squirrels can still be found here, and if you are lucky, in the Spring, you may hear a great spotted woodpeckers drumming away.

Out for a swim in the water lillies

Wallington estate

Moorhens also like to make their home at Wallington

This nest is very well concealed in the reeds

Arrival of new family

This baby heron's home has been built high up on the tree tops on the Coquet estuary. Apart from occasional preening, the young bird spends most of its time sitting and staring at the traffic zooming up and down on the opposite bank! 

An adult heron (presumably a parent) can usually be spotted down below doing a spot of fishing. Given the size of the young heron, one can only assume he is being very well fed and will soon be ready to take the plunge!

Treetop perch inaccessible to most predators

Blackbirds

Well, the young blackbirds with their speckled fronts are certainly very demanding! With their gaping mouths, it seems to be an almost impossible task for Dad to satisfy them.  He spends a large part of the day amongst the leaf litter foraging for tasty morsels such as insects, larvae and juicy worms! His sooty brown mate has an easier time searching for suitable vegetation to refurbish their nest in the hope they will raise a second brood. She also spends a lot of time in the greenhouse rumaging around in growbags flicking pieces of bark all over the place - much to my annoyance! Still, at least she knows how to get out of the greenhouse now whereas the juveniles are still pretty hopeless...

Adult feeding young

...quite helpless with his Mum as he continuously begs for food without any luck

yet quite a different matter when he is on his own - confident and upright!

and very tolerant of other species, unlike the older generation...