Rough love

This maybe looks worse than it really is. The goose voluntarily subjected herself to the gander's rough love.

This is on the River Kent south of Kendal, where we often go for a lunchtime walk. We have always thought that the curmudgeonly old gander was shunned by the rest of the flock of 8 farmyard geese, he is always on his own while the others are close-knit together. During the snowy spell before Xmas, we thought he was doomed, he had a big ball of ice hanging from the feathers of his rump. I tried to get him in the water to melt it off, but he refused to go in. Nevertheless, he came through the snow none the worse for wear.

Today though, after he had hissed at me on the bank, he went down to the water's edge, and the goose broke away from the flock nearby to join him. She was soliciting his attention in a most unsubtle way.

Two new species for my UK year list: willow warbler and swallow. Total 114 species.

I have finally managed to load up the blips from our holiday. I have deliberately avoided saying where we've been, in a vain attempt to make our holiday snaps more interesting. I will add a bit more detail after a few days while I still can.

The blips start on Monday 4th April
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday 11th