It has been said that Eskimos have four hundred different words for ‘snow,’ the reality is probably nearer fifty. We, British, have about as many different words and phrases for ‘rain’ and ‘it’s raining’. ‘Lovely weather for ducks’ seems the most appropriate for my blog this week.
Even though I held my camera under my coat for long periods to protect it from getting wet, I still managed to take a surprisingly large number of photographs. Luckily for you I have deleted many of them and edited my choice down further.
There were lots of different ducks ‘enjoying the weather.’ Starting with the ever-present mallards with the drakes now returned to their full glorious technicolour plumage…
And the nearly ever-present tufted ducks
Hopefully, you noticed the lovely little spouting droplets where raindrops hit the lake.
Other ducks included returning favourites like the shovelers, a pair of which were acting up to their name and shoveling up food
There were numerous gadwalls, by themselves in pairs and even larger groups.
There were also some red-crested pochards, the red-haired Elvis of the pochard family and a bird I hadn’t seen since January or February.
Ducks weren’t the only birds out and about and as the weather improved, I saw an Egyptian Goose, lots of gulls, little egret, a heron, and numerous cormorants.
The egret was some way down the lake from my vantage point, but I took this as a challenge to see how I could frame it against the lakeside and the wonderful autumnal colours. They provided a rich, dark warmth against which its bright white plumage contrasted and almost shouted.
In contrast the heron landed fairly close to me but again it was in a setting that provided an interesting autumn inspired background.
I saw cormorants in the lake and flying, but most of those pictures are ones I deleted as their clarity wasn’t good enough. Though the most striking shot that works for me is not in focus, nowhere near, but is a blur of feathers and flight, colour and movement captured.
There was another cormorant that reprieved last week’s theme for me – big birds in trees, partly camouflaged in amongst the branches and leaves.
And the final few pictures also of cormorants in trees show that not all birds of a feather want to flock together. This new arrival was seen off by the already perched birds.
Make sure you look at the cormorant at the bottom of both these last shots - amazing pose
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