Happy families

A Barn Swallow flew straight past my balcony on its way north today and I saw a few more, together with my first House Martins of the year, on my Brussels patch.  While our summer visitors are just returning, some of our resident species have got a significant headstart and are already busy bringing up their babies.  So far, I've seen several Mallard ducklings, a family of 8 Egyptian goslings, plus these four spiky-feathered baby herons in one of the heronry's four occupied nests.