Fossil and archaeological records show that the Dalmatian Pelican bred in Britain until medieval times other references say they were lost to Britain earlier and they were hunted to extinction during the Roman occupation, almost 2,000 years ago. they are now an extremely rare visitor from southeast Europe and an occasional escapee from waterbird collections. There are some thoughts of a reintroduction programme of Dalmation Pelicans to the UK.

I see posts on WP of Pelicans on jetties in the US. I always love those views. Today I visited the WWT centre at Arundel where they have these 2 birds in their collection of waterbirds.

Some extra pictures of Dippers on the River Lyn Somerset.

Dippers have a NIctitating Eye Membrane, an extra eyelid to help them see underwater and protect their eyes They also have white surfaces to the eyelids, conspicuous when the eyes are blinking. (see picture below).

Another visit to see how the Great Crested Grebe family is doing. All four chicks have grown over the last week. Mum and Dad are both looking after the chicks who are spending more in the water rather than on the backs of their parents.

By 05.30hrrs this morning we were watching the Great Crested Grebe family.

Both parents work together to support the chicks.

Grebe regularly eats its own feathers, which form a plug in their stomach, this acts as a filter, holding fish bones until they can be digested; the parents also feed feathers to their chicks you can see this in the video.

The video film is filmed in slow motion – it is fairly long but it does show some interesting parental behaviour.