Gallinule

This morning was extremely hot and humid as Malcolm and I took a short-ish walk around the park. as we were walking round one of the Straw's Bridge ponds, I noticed that we were being followed....

These two juvenile Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus chloropus) seemed to be very interested in us as they picked their way through the water-side meadow.

Moorhens belong to the Genus Gallinula, members of the Rail (Rallus) family of birds. Gallinules are found almost world wide and the genus includes some of the most critically endangered species of birds in the world. thankfully, these Common Moorhens are far from endangered. Well known to us all, they are usually very shy of humans, but these youngsters do not yet seem to have inherited this particular trait.