Ructions

At long last I managed to get out of bed at about five thirty - time to get to the river by six. Still missed the sunrise - I'd have to get up at about four to catch that - but it didn't matter too much, as it was quite cloudy.

There was quite a lot about - shelducks flying up and down, a few canada geese flew past and a thrush was singing , filling the valley with its song. As I went along the river, I spied some canada geese goslings feeding on the mud, but their parents were such good guardians that by the time I was about three hundred yards away, they were already heading down to the water.

They sailed past in a convoy - about a dozen goslings with four adults leading and bringing up the rear. I did get some nice shots of this, but in the end I decided to blip the ructions among the shelduck.

They flew up and down several times and then when I was nearing the car, one decided to drive the others off, so there was a lot of splashing and flapping and one by one the others all departed downriver, until the male was left with single female. This pair settled quite happily, climbing out onto the mud on the far side of the river and feeding.

Having got some pleasing shots of the ruckus, I headed home for some breakfast. They were a bit far away, even with the telephoto lens, so there had to be some severe cropping to get the detail.

Hope the weather treated you well today and you got some decent shots wherever you went.