Red-necked Grebe family at Sunnersta, Uppsala June 17 2024

This was a very nice, sunny afternoon, and we started our birding at Övre Föret. On our way to the birding tower we spotted a Common Whitethroat (Törnsångare) singing from the top of a Willow growing by the trail. The light was awful, of course I took some video! Pointing upwards, thereby shaking a bit more than usual (nope, didn't use the monopod).
As usual there were some nice birds present on the mudbank, way on the other side of Fyrisån, we hurried up to the upper level of the birding tower to get a better look. The distance is too far to produce enjoyable result, I still took video of two Spotted Redshank (Svartsnäppa) and two resting Caspian Tern (Skräntärna). A pair of Hooded Crow had nested in the nearby Alder grove, and by now their two "babies" were almost grown up and a bit hard to tell apart from their parents. The immatures sat and dosed in the closest Willow, i didn't notice them at first. Not until a parent arrived with a snack... I certainly noticed them then, but didn't get the commotion on film. The side-light was murder, and when I was done compensating and started filming, the juvies had dosed off again.
I also checked the creek for fish (of course) and spotted a few fry among the Lily-pads. Too young for ID, really, I guess it was Perch (Aborre) and Roach (Mört).
Nothing much happened so we decided to make a change of venue. For once we made a visit to Sunnerstaviken (Sunnersta "Lake") a bit later in the season, to check how the nesting had worked out for the local Red-necked Grebe pair (Gråhakedopping). As it turned out it had been successful (so far): there were three chicks of decent size/age. We spent a relaxed hour on the floating jetty, observing the parents dive for fish (sometimes coming up very close to us) to feed their offspring. However, our own stomachs started mumbling around 4 PM, so by then it was time to go home ;-)