Wild Duck Chase

My daughter emailed me a lovely pic of a female mallard with a huge brood of ducklings taken by a friend in High Roding churchyard. She suggested that I might like to go to photograph them. She and her brother went to school near this group of villages which get their name from the River Roding and we have fond memories of the area.

I had a lovely drive along single track roads and eventually found the church, tucked behind a farm, deep in the countryside. A man was sweeping the track with a leaf blower creating clouds of dust. He told me he was tidying in readiness for his wife's funeral. He'd seen the duck and her brood earlier. I asked if there was a pond nearby and he pointed me towards some private lakes. I found a public footpath and had a nice walk. I saw geese, swans and hares grazing in the wheat but no ducks. 

I noticed alpacas in a field on the way to the church and stopped on the way back to get pics. I told them how gorgeous they are and two of them spat at me. :) Luckily I wasn't very near.