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"Little Grebe Parenting, Sequel" Part 17, Rain of Trials

Updated: Aug 12, 2022


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.

Newly hatched chicks are much smaller than their brothers


Continuing from the previous blog, I will take up the little grebe of Bentenike.


 


Little Grebe parent birds take turns protecting chicks in their nests.


While the female protects the chicks in the nest, the male goes out to catch food.


Parent birds going out have to repeatedly and busy feed for their chicks.

Before the eggs hatched, when the eggs were warming, the parent birds in the nest were happy to take turns, saying "I was waiting!" When their companions returned, and went out immediately.


After the chicks have hatched, they seem to say, "I can't help it, go, let's go," and it's hard to get a heavy waist.


When the parent birds change, you can see the eggs and chicks on the nest.

The photo above is the state when the parent bird was changed.

The very small chick in the foreground just hatched this morning (15th).

I'm not feeling well and the color of my beak is bad.


It seems that the cause was that he couldn't get inside the feathers of the parent bird for a while, and his body got cold and he was deprived of his physical strength.

I want you to eat some food and get well.


The four chicks cheerfully plead for food, but no newborn little chicks are found.

The four brothers have a strong appetite.

Every time the parent bird returns, I try my best to feed it.

The newborn little chick does not appear when the parent bird brings food.

I have lost my appetite.

If you don't eat it, you won't feel well!



 

As the rain became stronger, I temporarily withdrew and decided to take shelter from the rain and see the Aquatic Life House family.

I can't find the Little Grebe of the Aquatic Life House family, I wonder if I'm out somewhere?

The nest is gone in the old place.

It seems that the reeds growing from under the surface of the water could not cope with the increase in the water level of the pond due to heavy rain.

The bad prediction was right.

残るヒナたちは大丈夫だろうか?


The nest is gone. Phragmites could not cope with fluctuations in water volume

When the nest sinks in the water and the chicks disappear, it seems like a dream that there is a nest here and five chicks are born, and I feel lonely.

Where have the chicks gone?

Can the little chicks survive if the nest is gone?



After a while, a parent bird appeared. But I can't see the chicks. June 15

After a while, a parent bird appeared.

But I can't see the chicks.

Have you abandoned raising chicks?

Or did he drown and die because the nest was gone?

After a while, I heard a chick's voice from an invisible place.

It's a voice begging for food, I don't know if it's one or two, but the chicks are still alive.

But the parent bird didn't go to the chicks.




 

It rained a little, so when I returned to Benten Pond,

The parent bird is singing in a loud voice that cannot be heard

The parent bird is constantly looking at something in front of him at one point in the pond.

And it is crying with an unfamiliar high-pitched voice.

If you look closely, you will see a small black shadow that is still moving nearby.

The little black shadow was a chick that had just hatched today

The parent bird turns his back to make it easier to climb, trying to help the chick, but the chicks do not have the physical strength to climb on the parent's back.

The chicks manage to show their faces and breathe as hard as they can.


The weakening chick, the parent bird with no help, just stretches her neck and makes a sad voice.

It makes me sad to see it.

After raising his head and breathing over and over again, the chick was exhausted.


A parent bird staring at a stuck chick, trying to help for a while after this

Even if it doesn't move, it stays close to the chick for a while, turns its back many times, and takes a position that makes it easy for the chick to climb.

For tens of minutes after the chicks stopped moving, the parent birds snuggled up near the chicks and never left.


Blessed rain also brings harsh trials to chicks.

Last year and this year, the rain lost the lives of many chicks.


Rain is a big challenge for chicks whose nests are flooded, their bodies are small, and their feathers are not completely waterproof.


In order to grow up to be an adult, we must overcome many challenges, not just foreign enemies such as animals.


A parent bird that warms its eggs in the rain. Maybe I hope the rain stops, gourd



to be continued

 

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