WALTER RAILLY

I don't know who it was who decided to put the live images of the Water Rail nest on the "Red Button" option on BBC Television in the mornings recently, but I think that it was a stroke of genius, and the "Springwatch" team ought to be applauded for achieving it.

I do know who found the nest, however, courtesy of a tweet by one of the presenters which I'd remembered reading, but thought had been on the Facebook page. Cue several minutes frustrated searching through pages of comments before giving up and then immediately coming upon it almost accidentally.

The nest was found by Nigel Bean, also known as "Nigel the nest finder" and he's just about allowed me to accept that the name Nigel might just be allowed have a place in the world after all...

Long story...

Another time, perhaps...

We first came across this live feed accidentally when channel surfing, looking for something to watch a few evenings ago. At that point the eggs were on the brink of hatching, and we sat on our sofa for ages, watching an interesting and strangely beautiful bird shuffle about in a nest, and getting the occasional glimpse of a piece of eggshell, whilst what we were really hoping for all the time was just a glimpse of a new-born beak from an as yet unseen character we'd already dubbed "Walter Railly..."

We're a literal bunch in this house, you know. It didn't matter how many of them might eventually hatch, each and every one of them was going to turn out to be a "Walter..."

Eventually, after a couple of hours of watching nothing more than a bird dozing off in a nest, we were dozing off ourselves and so went to bed.

Switching on again in the early morning and most of the hatching was already over, and our breakfast that morning was accompanied by more images of that now familiar bird sitting in its nest and, if we were very lucky, the occasional appearance of the cutest little black balls of fluff you ever did see.

So now we were invested and, that evening, and once again the following morning, our television viewing was completely limited to watching the crazy antics of a bird mother, occasional visits from her mate bringing scraps of food, and the six mad little chicks running riot under her feathers and around the nest.

You can keep your quiz shows and your soap operas and your action movies and your talent shows and your 24 hour rolling news... This was the kind of entertainment that televisions were made for...!

Sadly, nothing last forever, and the natural world is a brutal place and, before you know it, the fledglings flew the coop and were gone,  and the Red Button and the Webcams turned their attentions to other matters in the marshlands, but for two glorious days, those rather compelling little Water Rails held me gripped.

Still, with Mother Nature, there's no hanging about is there...?

Two days from egg to leaving home...

Now that's my idea of the limits of parental responsibility...