A visit to our local nature reserve today revealed a very different picture from my previous visit, which was only yesterday. More or less continuous rain since then has raised water levels to such an extent that all the islands have disappeared (apart from the largest, and even that is looking vulnerable), and many nests will have been swamped or washed away.
I watched a coot whose nest, probably yesterday some way up the bank, was by now on the shoreline and very vulnerable. The bird eventually left the nest, and began with what looked like a fair degree of desperation to collect branches and twigs from a tangle floating some distance away, dragging them through the water at high speed, and then up onto the shore as though to strengthen the nest and provide some kind of barrier against the rising water. It was a doomed attempt, clearly - though by the time I left the other bird had joined in. It's hard to avoid some degree of anthropomorphism when watching two parents in peril such as these.
Sadly, as I write these words the rain is still falling steadily. However hard they try, there'll be no nest there tomorrow.
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