High stepping

A lovely day in so many ways.  My herons are usually distant and tiny in big estuarine mudscapes.  Here I had the advantage of being sat in the Causeway Hide at Leighton Moss, and the heron high-stepped through the irises in front of us.  It was only the excitement of a small child on meeting Gus that caused the heron to fly (see extra).

The blue on the water reflected the sky, it was a warm Spring day.  There were sand martins flying high over the lagoons, marsh harriers were quartering the reedbeds, a cetti's warbler sang explosively from deep cover, and the squeally pig calls of water rails erupted.  As we walked back I saw my first brimstone butterfly of the year, sipping from the long dark spurs of the white sweet violets.

I had a feeling that if the temperature reached 14 or 15 degrees, we would see the emergence of someone we had not seen for over 6 months.  I was right, when I looked in the flower bed where he spent last winter, there he was freshly emerged, earthy and blinking in the sunlight.  Joy!

E, S and J left us mid-afternoon to head home.  I spent the evening trying to marshal my thoughts of what to say at the Old Flyer's funeral next week.  I have the outline, now I have to add the detail, and then there will be the challenge of delivering it when everyone's emotions are highly charged.

Thank you for all the supportive comments on the Last Flight blip, they were deeply appreciated.  I have had to take some time out from Blipfoto, it's all been a little too raw.  But today felt like a turning point, how can one not feel optimistic on a sunny day in Spring?

Backblipped on 4 April, a cloudy day.