This blog introduces the breeding and child-rearing struggle of little grebes that bred in Inokashira Park in 2018.
The chicks who had been observing the previous year were wiped out. Let's see the whole story until the chicks grow up well this year! I started writing this blog.
The nest is about to sink, so I will repair it hard, but June 1st
May passed in no time, and it was June.
It's June, when the sun comes to the north and the day is the longest.
June, the summer solstice, is the longest time for diurnal creatures to be active.
Many birds are used for breeding chicks during this period.
The food is plentiful and the time spent hunting is long.
Conversely, after the summer solstice, the days get shorter day by day.
I think that birds that are busy breeding feel the passage of time as well as humans.
For them, this time is invaluable.
Summer isn't that long.
June is the time of the rainy season, which is damp and disliked, but it is because of the rain that we and the creatures can live, and because of the abundant rain that Japan is rich in nature.
Why don't you feel the blessings and gratitude of the rain during this rainy season?
Your body gets wet, but if you wear good rain gear, you don't have to get your body wet.
Walking in the rain is also a good thing.
If you say that the rainy weather is bad, you may be hit.
What happens if the weather is nice and sunny every day for a year?
Just thinking about it makes me scared.
The little grebe nest on Bentenbashi was once washed away and rebuilt, but the nest is in a state of disappointment.
This time I will talk about that.
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Last time, I introduced that the material of the nest changed from dead leaves to aquatic plants.
I don't think the aquatic plants are suitable for nest materials.
Little Grebes are sometimes used as the material for their nests by tearing off the leaves, but most of them use the ones that sank at the bottom of the pond.
That means that the material that sinks in water will sink if left alone.
Nests are created by hooking and entwining various materials picked up from the bottom of the water on the tips of tree branches that extend to the surface of the water.
The material that gets caught on the branches of the tree dries and buoyancy is also generated.
If the nest floats on its own, the nest will be formed by placing more and more nest material on it.
What happens if you put moist aquatic plants there again?
The dry dead leaves absorb water again and become heavy.
And it sinks again.
Far from being hard to dry, aquatic plants are alive and suck up water from the surface of the water, making them heavier.
If the nest sinks, the hard-working little grebe will start repairing, and heavy aquatic plants will be placed on the nest.
The more it is about to sink, the harder it is to bring in the nest material of aquatic plants.
Then, the nest sinks more and more.
Depending on the material of the nest, such a vicious cycle will be repeated.
Can you notice the material early? Little Grebe carrying aquatic plants again.
The first nest is mainly dead leaves and dead branches when aquatic plants are barely growing.
The nest was washed away, perhaps because it wasn't entwined with the branches of the tree, or because it was attacked by a foreign enemy.
Still, the nest floated much more firmly on the surface of the water than the one I'm making now.
I posted it on my blog, but last June, six chicks hatched in Benten Pond, but they were wiped out.
The main cause was semi-submerged because the nest material was aquatic plants.
The chicks died after being deprived of the body temperature of the little chicks who couldn't dry their bodies.
Reference: "Little Grebe Parenting, Sequel" Part 2, Cold Rain
Do you even dream of hatching chicks tonight? I really want it to become a reality
Little Grebe, do your best to repair the nest.
However, the nest is sinking rather than being repaired by only aquatic plants.
The rainy season is about to begin, so I'm worried about the rain.
Can you really do it well?
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to be continued
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