Moorhen / experiment

I was walking over from work to C's office yesterday, and took a half hour for lunch in Stephen's Green. (I had the baby shawl ready to post, but the Post Office on the quays said that they couldn't take any parcels till after Obama's visit was over, and she didn't think that the GPO would take it either. I'm glad it was light, since I had to carry it round all day). Afterwards I was thinking I should have gone to the canal to see if there were any chicks, but as it was I enjoyed watching this moorhen on its nest. When I first spotted the movement out of the corner of my eye it was because one bird was passing another leaf to the bird in the nest. The first bird then went off foraging in the undergrowth and I didn't see it again, but the one on the nest spent a lot of time moving leaves and bits of grass around to get it just right. It's not clear to see from the photos, but the nest wasn't quite on the bank, it was maybe  eighteen inches - two feet out into the water. And if I hadn't seen the movement I'd never have looked twice at it.

 

 The experimental part of this post is that I've tried uploading the video to YouTube first to see how that goes. I'd suggest turning the volume down - it's mostly background traffic noise!