Hoping For Rain

It has been so hot and dry that a local pond has completely dried up.  I have never known this before.  Earlier in the year the moorhens bred there and a duck family, and although the water was low, they all thrived.  Yesterday I was amazed to see a tiny moorhen chick on the parched mud.  Just one.  It was calling loudly and out in the heat on its own.  This must be from a second brood.

Eventually a parent bird appeared and they moved into the reeds.  I scanned the pond and found a nest, with an unsuccessful egg nearby. 

 

  

 And a bit further away was another, sort of make-shift nest and a chick, but unmoving.  Did it perish due to the dry and heat?  I felt a bit sickened and worried and sent out a plea for rain. 

 I had to look up what moorhens eat, (RSPB) - water plants, seeds, fruit, grasses, insects, snails and worms - apparently the parent bird feeds the young chick to begin with but presumably they will be in need of water.  I will have to keep checking on this family.