Once more unto the river, dear friends

Another day off with a slightly iffy forecast for later (EDIT: They weren't wrong!) so I pootled to the river, thinking I'll maybe get an hour down there before the wind and rain set in

First up, a beautifully posing heron

He decided enough was enough, and took flight. I'd never considered a herons feet before....did you realise they were properly clawed??

But my mummy said I could be anything I want.... and I want to be a cormorant!

Quite a nice start I thought. I saw some folk jogging down the path, in camo gear and with camera's... ey up I thought...what have they seen... a reminder that otters are not cute and cuddly, they are predators!

With sharp teeth

But they're still lovely!

I don't know if you remember, back along, I said I wanted either 2 kingfishers in a single shot, or one to pose for me my side of the river....well.... it still hasn't happened!!

The wind started to pick up, and I had a couple of errands to run in town, so headed back to the car, looked up and..

So, errands run, I tootled off home and thought, well it's not raining yet...who knows... so I filled the feeders and set my chair up in the doorway overlooking the garden, out of the wind and settled in to see what came along.;. within about a minute there were robin, dunnock, goldfinch, chaffinch and blackbirds fizzing about, and then up the top of a tree I saw what I thought was a goldfinch, but having seen it on the bigger screen I think is a young greenfinch? (don't get many in the garden)

Suddenly, everything disappeared, and a flurry of pigeons flew off overhead, and then in to land came only the 2nd one I've seen wild (possibly is the same one I saw a couple of weeks ago)

He swooped off after maybe a minute or so and then the garden reignited with the usual fair, apart from the arrival of an antipodean goldfinch!!