Swimming Through Reflections

It was a beautiful morning - not sunny, as I'd hoped, but still and calm, which was wonderful after all the strong winds of the past several days.

The river had flooded the marsh on the inside of the path - to a much greater depth than is usual. It actually looked like a lake and the path was just an embankment running through the water - river on one side, marsh on the other. There were a few birds around. A song thrush was beginning to lay claim to its territory ready for spring; robins were flitting through the undergrowth and the usual pheasants exploded from under my feet, warning everything around that there was an intruder.

There was a solitary goldcrest foraging in the branches and a woodpecker was sounding out in the woods across the river. A flock of mallard were dabbling and squabbling on the flooded part of the marsh.

My blip is a little grebe, or dabchick as they are commonly known. I'd just got back to the car and I noticed a splash in the middle of the river. I waited and up it popped. I waited a bit longer as it was working it's way upstream towards me. It was relatively close - normally they stay on the far side of the river when they see me, so I was quite pleased.

Oh - and it started raining again at about lunchtime. Back to normal.