Spring visitor

We have a small pond in our garden.  When we first moved into this house I added some Koi Carp, which managed to survive for 18 months before the neighbourhood heron spotted them, and, well, that was that.  Nowadays I have accepted that there is no point trying to keep fish in the pond, they just don't last long, and once the heron finds them it keeps coming back until there are none left.

However, we still get plenty of joy from the pond, even without its fish.  Every year in mid February frogs come to mate and leave their frog spawn which eventually stacks the pond with tadpoles.  

Our other regular visitors are a pair of mallard ducks.  Today was their first visit.  Mr Mallard keeps a careful eye peeled for any potential predators, while Mrs gets on with the business of finding interesting things to eat and generally preening.  

Today's blip is of Mrs taking off.   I don't have a lot of experience of photographing birds.  I thought that I had set a fast shutter speed but, interestingly 1/500 was clearly not fast enough, and the wings are obviously blurred.  So let's call it an action shot this time ;-)  I was pleased to have got a picture in reasonable focus, but clearly much more practice is required.

Oh yes, I now have two months worth of blips :-)