Some wildfowl will take broods from other pairs of their species (I've seen Goldeneye do this) to decrease the chance of their own young being predated. There were reports of two pairs of Goosander on the Bollin recently, so my guess is that the brood you saw contains the young of the other pair who will have departed once their chicks had been taken over.
Had a walk up behind the airport this afternoon mainly to let my grandson, visiting from Cornwall, watch the planes. He was also very interested to see the Grey Wagtail family flitting about in the Bollin tunnel under runway 2.
have seen gooseanders on bollin from time to time, yesterday on bollin found tawny owl nest hole with small chick scrabbling around, possibly on top of others!
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Friday 20th of May 2011 12:38:09 PM
Had a walk up behind the airport this afternoon and through the Bollin Tunnel under runway 2. A couple of Grey Wagtails we flitting in and out of the tunnel and there was a male Goosander upstream toward the Valley Lodge Hotel. Both seen from GM side of the river
