Birds, Birds, Birds.

This morning just before I left for work I heard the sound of a jackdaw coming from the woodburner in the sitting room. We've got jackdaws nesting in the kitchen chimneys and in one of the lofts. It sounds like Hitchcock's 'The Birds' when you go upstairs, but we don't want any above the woodburner. In case a bird had fallen all the way down into the woodburner I opened the doors very cautiously with a large towel in my hands. Nothing there, I only hope it was just a bird sitting on the chimney pot and not one fallen into the chimney. I left the woodburner doors wide open just in case a bird was trying to get out. Not any sign or sound of a bird tonight.

It was absolutely roasting as Romas and I walked across the playground this afternoon. We were even joking about the fact that we had to carry our coats which we'd been wearing in the morning. The sky was blue and I thought it was perfect weather for my walk at Velator. Half an hour later we'd arrived in Braunton, the clouds had rolled and it was starting to rain. On went my jacket and I set off to look for interesting shots. I had a fruitless look in the reed beds to see if I could spot any swans just in case I'd missed them last week.
The rain started .....

....... and cleared up. The flag iris are blooming all along the waterways brightening up the green of the reeds.

As I walked along I heard the sound of chicks and risking life and limb, or at least a muddy bath, I scrambled through the undergrowth and caught a glimpse of this moor hen chick. Not the same one as last week because I could hear several chicks piping away in the reeds in front of me.

Finally I spotted this swan across a field.

The swan spotted me too and started to swim down the waterway towards me. There may well be a nest some where close by.

He swam to within a few feet of me , hopefully he was looking for food rather than being territorial. Just as he got closer and closer there was the dreaded dingdingding from the camera with a message - 'Card Full'. I was frantically pressing buttons to flick back through my shots and delete a few by which time the swan had turned and was heading back up the waterway. Next week I'll go straight to the same place and take some bread with me to keep him happy.