Oh Beautiful Swan Please Let Me Out

I have admired shots of insects and birds and macros of flowers in other people's journals. Would love to be able to do one myself.

Today, on the way to the shops (again), I decided to stop in the Queen's very own park, which she is never in. The loch is almost all frozen and the geese, ducks and swans don't know what to do with themselves. There was a beautiful sky and a lovely half ruin up on the hill. I was going to compose something beautiful.

Turned off my engine and this swan came right over to the car. No messing he was straight in there. He didn't appear aggressive, but he wasn't moving without any food. When I couldn't oblige, he sat down and started preening himself. I made much noise and attempted to open the door. He just looked. The swan bouncer was allowing access to no areas madam! So I got my own macro of this beautiful swan. The shot is from the inside of the car with the window rolled down. You can see how close he was by the fact that I couldn't eliminate the car door from my shot. The view will still be there another day but the swan may not be so friendly(?!).

Linlithgow Palace is a great place for swans. There are many benches to sit on but few do. The swans there are aggressive. Some time ago I took mum and dad up and we had a snack watching the loch. The swans got noisier and noisier and closer. Eventually one tried to whisk my dad's snack out of his hand. Fleet of foot Neilie Chan sprung into action and he kicked that swan right out of the way. Poor thing lost its balance and rolled for several metres. It got up and was fine although chose to concede that battle and stayed away. Swan 0 Neilie Chan 1.

Early blip and off now tae rid roond as they say in some parts.