Cheeky Chaffinchy Chappy

Better in large ("L"), because it is only little...

Well, this little chap certainly cheered me up this afternoon: I had a very irritating aborted appointment after already having waited for half an hour (and had also dismissed my lift home, so had public transport to look forward to), so came home via Wandsworth Common. I had a nasty cough last month, and pulled muscles in my chest (intercostals and one in my back) from coughing: some have recovered, but I'm still in quite a bit of pain so I was sent for an x-ray to see whether I'd fractured any ribs. Well, the clinic said that x-raying for fractured ribs is "against protocol" so they wouldn't do that in spite of the fact that I'd been referred to see them... Great.

I'm sure that I've seen one of these before, but I've certainly never photographed one so this was very satisfying! He was surprisingly inquisitive: he wouldn't let me get close to it (this is a crop...) but kept moving only so far that he felt safe, and then he'd turn and watch me again. It was a very chilly afternoon, so he was very puffed up against the cold. I also saw the Wandsworth Common Egyptian geese (one of which is a cute eye-patch-less one...), and I saw Mr. and Mrs. Pochard which was a nice surprise (I've not seen them since Mrs. Pochard left Mount Pond on Clapham Common).