Sixteen

With the encouragement of my clinical director and service manager, I am leaving work up to an hour or more earlier each day than I was before the incident a month ago. Because it suits me to get to the unit really quite early, I am still meeting my contractual obligations, and getting home with plenty of daylight remaining. With today being sunny and almost windless, I got on the bike and rode to Western Springs Lakeside Park, where I saw and photographed a magpie (self introduced from Australia), a courting pair of Pied Shags, and this colony of Royal Spoonbills, 16 in total.

Until a couple of years ago, I had not seen one of these, and they were rare this far north. This group seem to be well established as I have seen a significant number here both last year and this year.

I had to use the 50 - 200 lens today as the 100 - 300 seems to be malfunctioning and not allowing a photo to be taken if the zoom is above 250 mm. Perhaps its time to replace a lens that has fallen more times than I can remember. It's not that I drop it, you realise; it just falls.

Today's extra is the female Pied Shag in the middle of a posture designed (I think) to entice the male, who flew fast and low around the lake perimeter, but otherwise just watched her.