Coate Water Park (Sunday 7th April 2024)

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I had to go into Swindon for an ultra-sound scan at the Great Western Hospital, so I set off several hourse early so that I could visit Coate Water Park first and do a circuit around the lake. Since my last visit there their sole black swan had sadly passed on. It had been there since 2008 and died of natural causes. I first saw it there in 2021and had photographed it many times since then, and blipped it.
Early on in my walk I saw a cormorant fishing underwater in the lake. It would occasionally surface for air but always in a different spot and had dived again before I could find it in the viewfinder and focus. I did get to photograph others that were drying wings on the cormorant tree further along. I had enough spare time to detour to a another part of the lake that can be viewed from Paddy's Copse. There is a heronry there and also I believe a great white egret is a resident of the area and I got a glimpse of one on a recent visit. There were a large number of mute swans including one that was on a nest and adding its own feathers to its lining.

L.
Monday 8.4.2024 (1858 hr)

Blip #4065 (#3815 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #007
Blips/Extras In 2024 #049/266 + #017/100 Extras
Day #5126 (1254 gaps from 26.3.2010)
Lozarithm's Lozarhythm Of The Day #3204 (#3044 + 160 in archived blips)

Swans series
Birds series
Coate Water Park series
Swindon series
Wildlife series

Coate Water Park, 7 April 2024 (Flickr album of 31 photos)

Taken with Panasonic/Leica DC-LX100M2 Micro 4/3rds

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
ABBA - The Day Before You Came  (recorded August 1982)
This single was the very last thing recorded before ABBA disbanded and is sung by Agnetha playing the part of an 'ordinary' person rather than singing it as beautifully as she could, although for me that gives it more emotional charge. It featured on More Abba At The BBC that I had watched the night before.

One year ago:
Still Life With Gin