Eye Contact

A good morning down at the river. I arrived at about 7.15, just as the sun was pulling itself up over the hills on the East side of the valley. Got some nice shots of the sedge, then as I walked down the path, caught a glimpse of a fox hunting in the marsh. It moved away from me, completely unaware that I was there, so I moved about ten yards down the path to get a better view. As I ducked under a branch I rustled it and the fox turned. It was perfectly still looking at me and I was perfectly still looking back at it. We stayed like that for about a minute - the only thing moving was my index finger pressing the shutter button. Deciding I wasn't much of a problem, it turned and strolled out of sight behind the reeds.

Further round, I saw the kingfishers again, but they didn't stay this time. Spent some time taking close ups of the grass and insects, then a family of swans - two adults and four cygnets came to see if I had any food. On getting back to the quay where I had parked my car, there were a few canoeists just setting off down the estuary, so I got some good landscapes with their brightly coloured canoes. Finally, a couple of hundred canada geese came flying upriver in waves of between twenty and fifty birds. Quite spectacular.

I had to tear myself away to get home for breakfast. A truly beautiful morning.