Black-headed gulls: setting sun and swan food...

Much better in large! See the "grapenut" in its beak, and splashing water frozen in time...

A tricky choice: I've also uploaded a charging coot and a ring-necked parakeet (house hunting?) to Blipfolio!

I visited Mount Pond this afternoon with my mother; she came armed with "Swan and duck food" (but why not geese?). I found choosing my blip today seriously tricky because there were so many birds on and around the pond, and although patchy and sporadic, there were many moments when the light was beautiful.

It was a wonderful visit: I managed to stroke a coot! My mother was throwing food to the birds (they prefer it in the water because it is rather like large grapenuts, so is too much like gravel when it is dry...), and this particular coot was at her feet picking up the pieces that she dropped. It had its back to me so I stroked it and it didn't flinch. It was still nibbling away so I continued to stroke it; it flattened down (i.e. bent its legs) but seemed unfussed (or perhaps assumed that I was just another bird). It was amazing!

There were lots of birds there today: swans, geese (Egyptian and greylag), ducks (shovelers and mallards), rails (coots and moorhens), cormorants, crows (and a magpie), starlings, pigeons, and parakeets. I got pictures of them all, and the other blip contenders included other gull shots, a cormorant landing, and crows looking beautifully slick and menacing...