Evil eye?

The plastic buoys at the Rowing Lake are used as perches by many birds, particularly seagulls and common terns, but I've never seen a heron using one before! This youngster seems to have decided that the buoy was a safe place for a rest, out of the reach of people and dogs.

It looked quite unstable, but seemed to cope perfectly well with the breeze turning it in different directions, not even ruffling a feather.This image was captured as we were starting out on our dog walk and it was still there when we returned nearly an hour later! I particularly liked the rather evil-looking yellow eye against the yellow reflections of some canoes.

Although it had been chilly first thing, there were still a reasonable number of insects about including several migrant hawkers, a comma butterfly, Roesel's bush-crickets, long-winged coneheads and dark bush-crickets.

In the afternoon we had been planning to go to Burghley Park, but it turned grey, windy and cool, so we decided to leave it for another day. I made good use of the time, and mowed the lawns, including the orchard and meadow, which had scarcely been touched during the summer thanks to all the rain. This was quite hard work and I'm feeling pleasantly tired now - and glad that we're having a Chinese delivered tonight - one last celebration before Chris returns to Sheffield tomorrow morning.