Two Moorhen chicks and their parents; Gallinula chloropus, Rottingdean Pond. I think the chick are only a few days old. They stayed in their nest, or closely followed their parent, in the reed bed in which the nest is located, thus it was very hard to get a clear photo. At one point two Herring Gulls came too close and I have never seen Moorhens be so assertive; both parents went after the Herring Gulls to shoo them away (the gulls were about 4 times the size of the adult Moorhens). After that, the adults Moorhens washed themselves in the pond water and shook themselves dry; the chicks copied exactly what their parents did. It seemed that their early learning came from mirroring.
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