There is not a great deal going on in life at the moment; the weather is poor and it feels like dead time at the end of what has, admittedly, been a rather extended summer, at least in personal terms. But like these kids, I’ve gone ‘back to school’ — not that I find it any easier to accept than they probably do.
The recent rains have made the river frisky, and though the ducks’ usual mid-stream gathering place, this little island, is under water at the moment this just seems to give them an excuse to enjoy a paddle. They seem quite sociable about it.
It’s always good when one of the local heron population is posing in the morning on an otherwise photographically inert day.
Who knows for sure whether this is the same specific bird I’ve pictured before but (allowing for the foreshortening effect of me having taken today’s shot from about 30 feet above the heron’s head) the markings certainly look indistinguishable from those of our old friend Humph, as seen on 25/5/16 for example. How long do herons live, I wonder?
Another day for spring foliage to fill up the bandwidth. 2,803 days in and there are still some corners of the home town worth depicting. The bridge has been here since 1510, or thereabouts, and seems good for a while yet. Whether the same is true of the photographer, who knows…?
The photo was taken, and it does epitomise what was a wonderfully sunny and warm day, particularly later on. But I frankly don’t really care what it was like or about, on what was another stellar day in recent British history. I was supposed to be going to Manchester today, but had an enforced day at home because of the closure of Manchester Victoria station for reasons of which I am sure you’re probably aware. At the moment I feel angry with just about everything.
It’s been raining since about Friday morning, though did stop in the afternoon — a good thing seeing as the river was rising. Drove one representative of the local Muscovy duck colony off the water anyway; not that things were much less damp in town for it.
Off to Japan tomorrow. Forgive me if updates don’t arrive daily, at least for the next few days. There will be plenty to see I’m sure.
Back home — for a few days anyway, before my next trip out. I have said it before, and doubtless will say it again, that I like both travelling and coming home; being at home, and travelling. May this pattern of life continue. The structure in the background is the bridge built around 1510 that gives this town its name. The man is paying tribute to the ducks, I think, with offerings of food. The girl is just chilling out.
Today was not the first time that I have been grateful to spot one of Hebden Bridge’s resident heron population on my only excursion out of the house. Days otherwise spent at home, marking, are not the easiest ones on which to fulfil the daily photo brief.
I say ‘one of’ the resident herons but I suppose there’s a better than even chance that this is the same bird as appeared on 25/5/16 and 17/2/16 — look at the earlier shots for yourself and see what you think. The markings are more or less the same and I guess as predators these are territorial beasts and like to keep coming back to the same spot. If it is the same one this would make it the second bird (after the local muscovy duck) to definitely appear on the blog more than once. And looking back at those other pictures does, at least, indicate just how much these guys can fold up those amazing necks of theirs.
One thing I haven’t done with the stats yet is count up the number of photos accounted for by different types of animal. I suspect that over the last 1,953 days, ducks will win, probably just ahead of dogs. Why? Because Hebden Bridge has plenty of them, and look — they’re basically photogenic.
Nice light, but not a very exciting picture — then again it was not a very exciting day. I did quite enough over the last 48 hours thank you very much. Anyway, happy Friday — hope you have a good weekend.
