Tag: Ducks

Geese reflected

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A double reflection, strangely the bottom photo if flipped but the geese look the right way up?

I think this is two parents and a large family of goslings.

The grey light and the minium ripples give the reflections a better clarity. The water looks like quicksilver, it has a metallic sheen. This is a gentle, slow and harmonious image. Peaceful and almost monochromatic. The birds silhouettes could be cut outs. Like the set of three flying ducks people used to have on their walls. Usually with one duck hanging down for comic effect.

Feeding the geese

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Feed the birds.

£2 a box

There’s a song there somewhere? One of our things we do when we walked round Westport lake. The birds were all round us, pecking our toes. Trying to get the food out of my hand. Even in this weather they want feeding. Ducks, Geese, Goslings, Coots and Moorhens and a solitary Swan.

The birds still have babies, a bit bigger than yesterday, they haven’t all flown the nest yet. It was lovely to see them.

Otter?

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Reflection of two ducks, turned through 90°. Somehow it became an otter or a beaver? Eyes, nose, mouth, pale fur. Maybe even some ears? Above it I can see some sort of dark eyed creature. Two large eyes and a pale button nose? Arms stretching out to either side of the picture. Ready to pounce on the otter head?

So many questions, imagination can be surprising, finding odd creatures in pattern, Pareidolia….

Great light at Westport lake today

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There was ice on Westport lakes and ducks were standing round on it while the geese and swans swam in the open water. The light was glancing across the surface as it headed down towards sunset. There was scattered cloud that gave the scene light and shade. All in all very picturesque for a short cold walk round the lakes.

We took grain and fed a lot of the birds, we were mobbed by them all clamouring for something to eat. A lot of other people had the same idea. Hubby and I were wearing masks, but we saw very few others wearing them, and there were groups of up to about ten people!

I enjoyed the walk, not really very far, but slippy underfoot. Pleased with my camera phone photos too.

Swans and ducks

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What better on a crisp winters day than to take photos of a Swan and a couple of ducks. Interesting how the sky is reflected in the first one and not so much in the second. They were taken last year out at a place called the plume of feathers, at Barlaston, Staffordshire. The pub sits alongside the Trent and Mersey canal. Much more picturesque than where it runs through the city, the canal offers an opportunity to glide along in narrow boats on self catering holidays. The boats are beautiful to look at, but they can be quite expensive to rent for a week, so I prefer to walk for free by the water and allow the Swans and Ducks to do the gliding….

Ducks

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DSC_1835it’s not often that you walk down the road in your local town and see a duck and a drake walking down the road in front of us. Crossing by a taxi rank. There is a river called the Trent that runs through the town, but it is in a culvert until it comes out near our local football ground.

When people say hello to each other in Stoke they say “hello duck” where in other places it might be “hello chick, or hello dearie”.

So we hope the ducks found the river or flew off to a park. I didn’t know who to contact and neither of them were injured. Just taking a walk….

Ducks

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Well a duck and drake actually. Bog standard Mallard ducks, but I do think they look smart. The male (drake) has the green head and ring round his neck. The female duck has neat brown feathers bounded by white edges. These were photographed on a cold day about a month ago.

It’s soon going to be time for little ducklings to emerge from their eggs. In a few weeks time I might be taking pictures  Of some of them.

Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this image of nature.

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Feed the birds

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We went out for lunch today at Barlaston in Staffordshire. We stopped at a lovely pub next to the canal. There were lots of hungry ducks on it as we pulled up. I decided to have a meal that would include bread so I could feed them when we came out. I got a crusty bread roll with my starter and put it in a napkin for use later on. After a delicious lunch we came out and went back to the canal. Now a couple of Swans had joined the ducks and moorhens.

Out came the bread roll. I broke it into tiny bits and tried to share it between all the birds. My hubby went off to buy a loaf of bread (by now the gaggle of birds had grown to around 20). When he came back we started feeding them. There were birds flapping and chasing each other everywhere. We kept breaking the bread up into small pieces so that it would get wet and not swell up when they swallowed it. Some of the moorhens skidded across the frozen ice on the canal when they tried to catch the bread. We finally managed to get rid of a whole loaf!

Recently signs were put up telling people not to feed birds with bread to stop them choking… Now there is news that birds are starving to death…..

I’m glad we fed the birds, even if it wasn’t the correct stuff. It was at least brown bread and they seemed healthy.