Cormorant

The talk last night at our camera club on wildlife was excellent - the second half of the talk focused on leopards in Africa and it made me feel a longing to be back in the bush watching leopards.

I am rather bored with my usual walks so today I went to Bushy Park. I always think it is a schlepp to get there when in fact it's only a 15 minute drive so I don't know why I don't go more often. It was colder today but we had a good walk all over the park, avoiding the deer who were quite far from us. Xena loved it, she enjoyed all the new smells and such interesting smells too from all the wildlife. We came across a small pond with a few ducks on it and she ran to the water's edge to try and get near the ducks - they ignored her as she wasn't barking or appearing threatening to them. She ran around the pond and tried to get near them from the other side and waded in, and before she knew it, she was in the middle of the pond and she must have reckoned, well I might as well swim across to get back and so she did. Those who are familiar with my journal will know that Xena is not a swimmer, but today she surprised me and probably herself too. The ducks were not bothered by her, they just swam in the opposite direction.

After our long walk I put her back in the car to get warm and dry and then went to see if there were any interesting birds at the main ponds. I had noticed a cormorant high up in a tree earlier on, but when I got back to that main pond it was no longer there. That is because it was fishing in the pond, it was mainly under water and only surfaced momentarily every now and again. I spent some time trying to guess where it would resurface, trying to get a photo of it as it did, but it was moving all over the pond in an erratic manner. I did get this one which I liked and there is an extra of a Canadian goose flying, something I also usually fail miserably at, trying to get birds in flight.

It turned out to be sunny in the afternoon but I see it is very wet again tomorrow. 

Gavin drove to work today and found it very uncomfortable as his wound in his back (where the large cyst was removed) rubs against the car seat. He is very busy at work this week even though he is still uncomfortable and not healed yet.