At Last - Goosander Shots!

I knew they'd be on the lake today, freezing weather always brings the more interesting ducks to the town waters. So it proved today, although as ever my photography is terribly "record shot" and everything is soft looking that isn't totally out of focus.

My hands are so shaky, it is impossible to for me to take steady hand held shots. I know it's only a bottom end bridge camera, but I should be able to get better pictures than these.

That being said, freezing my hands off on a bright cold day with a spine slicing wind blowing across the water, I've got a few shots where you can just about see what is going on.

The egrets are a bonus. Never been seen before on the Blue Lake, but we now seem to have three that have settled in for the winter, either squabbling or actually attempting to breed today. Again ,my shots of these were terrible.

Still, I will keep trying. Just being outside is nice enough!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.02.18

Fishing on the Goose Lake

Bit of a lumbering sort of run today, on a day that turned out to be surprisingly warm but not terribly interesting apart from the large numbers of honeybees with full saddlebags on the ivy.

There's a few queen buff tail bumbles low down looking for hibernation nests too. Single white butterfly. No echelons of noisy pink footed geese like the one I saw the other day.

The geese around in town today were of the canada variety, big honky beasts that make running rather tricky as they decorate every inch of footpath with nasty green and brown droppings, as if someone has sat on an avocado.

I hate those as well.

Lots of fishermen on the blue lake today, casting their lines out between the flotillas of waterfowl. THe fishermen here are angry as there are proposals to use the lake for teaching sailing and canoeing. Go for it, say I. So do the fish I suspect.

Overhead a green banana flew - the motor-paraglider who some people accuse of being some sort of aerial voyeur.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.10.17