Mallard ducklings

I was up at 4am this morning in the hope of seeing the transit of Venus. What a great blip that would have made, but sadly, as always happens when I attempt to witness a major astronomical event, the British weather was there to thwart me.

For an hour I stood on the summit of one of the Lickey Hills, camera at the ready, but the sun stubbornly remained obscured by low clouds. Annoyingly, just five minutes after the transit was over the sun finally burst through for a bright morning.

So it was off to Derby for work and another lunchtime walk in Alvaston Park. I checked that the coot I met on May 14th was still happily on its precarious nest, but settled on this shot of a mallard duck with her three ducklings as my blip for the day.