Rainy Days and Mondays

We went down to the old boathouse in my village to do a spot of birdwatching. There's not a lot of variety on the village ponds but we seemed to be lucky today.

There was a cormorant hiding behind the boathouse. It's not very often they visit.

Next to the black headed gull was a great crested grebe, both in their winter plumage. The grebe was diving under the water and disappearing for awhile.

Someone had kindly placed some bird seed on the post. A moorhen had flown up and hopped over the railings to help itself to some food.

In the distance, was a lovely Georgian Grade II country house.

Moving on, down at the village lido we saw some goosanders (male and female) along with black headed gulls. They visit occasionally but always move on elsewhere.

It wasn't until we got back, that we realised there was a heron sat in the corner of the lido next to the tufted ducks. We didn’t walk all the way around the lido as it was raining hard. Had we done so, the heron would have flown off and we wouldn't have missed it!

Next stop was another village pond, commonly known as the Lodge or Wall pond.

We saw some more visiting tufted ducks, male and female. Again, they will only stay temporarily before flying off to pastures new.

It was well worth going out in the rain for.