Grey Heron ( Ardea cinerea )

Just my kind of day on the canals.  A sunny day, with lots of locks 27 of the 33 on "Heartbreak Hill"  completed today, and lots of wildlife.  We left six locks of "Heartbreak Hill" for the morning as we were aiming to arrive at the Harecastle Tunnel before 12:00.  They have this ridiculous situation where if you turn up before 12:00 you queue and take your turn, however, if you arrive later you have had to have booked a passage.  Strangely they don't provide crystal balls so that you can look into the future and see if there will be a queue at locks or you will get some rubbish round your propeller.

We saw quite a lot of Herons on today's cruise, considering on our last week out we saw only one.   For once I managed a passable shot of one as it flew.  Normally they sit still until they decide the boat is too close, take off, and fly behind you to land again.