Geoff from the Smestow Valley Birders saw a heron hunting the ducklings featured in the post above, though it didn’t catch any.
But the mother seems to have decided that a retreat was in order. The next day she was with all nine, hyperactive as ever. Now they were lunging after flies as they swam in the canal. The chicks were still to have flown. Perhaps they made a subterranean escape through the Graiseley Brook culvert.