Friendly ducks by the canal

Some gardening in the morning before the rain started. It was blowy too so every time I swept either more leaves fell from the trees or they ended up back where they started.
Mike had to go to Inverness to have new back tyres fitted to the Land Rover.He dropped me at Merkinch where it was even more blowy but I still went for a walk down to the canal.
The tide was out but there were still a fair amount of birds pecking away in the seaweed, including oyster catchers and gulls, several curlews with one having an argument with a carrion crow.
The path by the pond was more sheltered. At least 15 herons with just the tops of their bodies showing peeped out among the rushes and grasses. I spotted a ‘new’ hide , We’ll I had not seen it before , A bit of a muddy slope to get down to it so decided not to risk slipping down , no sighting of the kingfisher.
Along the canal I came across a friendly family of mallards.7 young and Mum called Daisy I found out when a gentleman stopped for a chat.
I met Mike in B&M where I bought a magic sponge called elbow grease, recommended by Anne who said that it’s fantastic, I will let you know :) Yes, it really is called that and Anne was telling me that on April 1st one year her father had sent her out to look for a bottle of elbow grease , it was very important that he got it that day ! She hunted in every shop but never found any ;)