26th May

It was a lovely day today so I went for a walk in the afternoon sun. I took photos of a number of interesting views but my favourite moment was when I stumbled across this very content-looking little bird. It was remarkably trusting and I managed to get quite close, taking photos all the while, before I pushed it too far and it flew off.

21st April

Spring is here and I've noticed birds all over the place chasing after each other in courtship rituals. Down by the river this evening I saw a pair of ducks chasing each other around. They then proceeded to mate just a few metres in front of me. After that had finished, they seemed to wash off - ducking their heads under the water and then shaking their wings to clean them out. I did manage to catch this one shot, which has a good element of action.

28th March

I wandered into town today to see what I could find and ended up down by the river, taking photos of an unusual looking bird.

As I sat taking my photos a chap with a dog wandered by and told me he'd never seen one like it. Another chap came by and the three of us chatted for about ten minutes about the bird, what it was, why it seemed to be so tame and whether it had a partner around somewhere.

I moved to take the photos from another spot and then another man came by and asked me what it was. He assumed that I was knoweldgeable about birds because I was stood there photographing it. I had to admit that I didn't know but that I was going to look it up.

On getting back, I'm fairly certain that it's a Little Egret. They're certainly not unheard of in the UK but they aren't the most common bird either. Not bad, considering I was only planning to get shots of the landscapes and bridges down on the river. I'll save that idea for another day.