Ducks and Geese

It was bitterly cold this morning and took a while for the temperature to rise above 0C, but then the sun shone and it got up to 4C for a while early afternoon. This morning I watched the Australian Open, a great win for Emma Raducanu after so many surgeries and a year away from the game to recover. Also a good start after a close first set for Carlos Alcaraz. This afternoon I went over to Pensthorpe for a short walk, there was ice on the smaller lake near the shop and the flamingos were inside as presumably it was too cold. Not a day for hanging around taking lots of photos either, my collage includes flying barnacle geese, a male and female mallard in the sun and a pochard. I noticed there were fewer birds feeding today in the garden and a smaller number of types, not sure if they were put off by work going on in the field including having a big bonfire. 

Covid Update (for my record only)
The BBC News website reported that research in the Lancet based on anonymised health records for all the UK population aged over 5 has shown that 44% of the entire UK population in the Summer of 2022 had not received the full number of vaccinations recommended. It's thought that over 7,000 Covid-related hospital admissions could have been prevented by full vaccination. By country the percentage of people not fully vaccinated against Covid between June and Sept 2022 was:
- 49.8% Northern Ireland
- 45.7% England
- 34% Scotland
- 32.8% Wales
They found that under-vaccinated people over-75 were more than twice as likely to be seriously ill with Covid than those who were fully protected.