illustration

Bee orchid Ophrys apifera entire plant with flowers

Iris in gravel with blue petals

Garden border in spring with tulips, crocus, daffodils and daisies abutting a carefully tended lawn and edged with concrete slabs

Stylized diagram of the duck egg showing chalaza, yolk, white, germination, membranes, and air pocket

Dipper eating aquatic invertebrate

Group of domestic ducks and geese including the Muscovy duck

Edier duck Somateria mollissima pair with chicks in rainy coastal scene male swimming

Golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos

Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis pair perched on teasels

Goosander or Common merganser Mergus merganser on a lake with sundew, rocks and a beach in the foreground, scrubby vegetation behind, set in northern Wales uplands.

Great crested grebe Podiceps cristatus male with erect crest

Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula male displaying

Coot Fulica atra

Cuckoo Cuculus canorus

Curlew Numenius arquata

Dabchick or Little grebe pair Tachybaptus ruficollis

Stylized diagram of the skeelton of a duck

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching Day one yolk held in place with chalaza, germinal disc where fertilized chick starts to grow

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching day twelve feathers start to show eye covered with lid claws formed

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching Day 27 hatchling squashed inside egg ready to hatch, air cell still shows

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching day five embryo separates from the yolk, blood vessel network grows and branchesm eye starts to get a colour.

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching day eight blood vessels carry waste and oxygen, eyelids start to cover eye, beak and egg tooth more clear.

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching duckling hatching half in half out of shell with prominent egg tooth

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching hatched duckling chick