I would like to say this is a shot that highlights the biodiversity and ecological health of Manchester city centre. But actually I think this goose was rather lost and confused. Not that I was going to be the one to help it find its way back to the canal (or wherever); Canada geese are vicious buggers.
Last full day in Japan. A couple of free hours this morning were spent in Shinjuku-gyoen park, along with several thousand other people, most of whom seemed to be cooing over the blossoming cherry trees (sakura), with dozens of Japanese engaging in what I could only perceive as a form of fundamental nature worship beneath each one. A total stranger asked me in the hotel elevator this evening whether I had seen the blossoms. They even have national news announcements, blossom forecasts if you like, stating where the best displays are to be found. I don’t dispute these plants’ beauty, but I can’t help thinking — you know, we have cherry blossoms in England too. They’re just there. But clearly I’m missing something.
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.
With due respect to Joe, whose 14th birthday it is today, this had to be today’s shot. Most of all I like the capture of the exquisitely delicate grip it has on the petal. There was just this one, half-hour burst of sunlight today, but it augured well for the rest of spring.
This leaf must have come down last autumn and ever since has been lying there, gradually decaying, into the layer of litter. Having somehow been shuffled to the edge of the deck, this morning it lay there catching the light in a pleasing manner. But this was an ephemeral beauty. The picture was taken at Hebden Bridge rail station and as I post this after passing the same point the next day, I did check on it — and it was gone, never to be seen again.
Clearing away a bunch of dead foliage from the allotment this afternoon, I uncovered this beauty. It decided it was still far too early in the year to be exposed to the elements and crawled its way back under cover sharpish, but I managed to get a couple of shots off before it did so.
A lack of cheap hotel rooms in the centre of London led to us staying last night in Stratford, on the doorstep of Olympic Park, venue for the 2012 Games. We went on a walk round there this morning. This counts as East rather than Central London, but is more than urban enough and, as is obvious from this picture, sees the occasional football fan now and again (though not this weekend).
When I first saw this cormorant perched on a post beside the unseen River Lea below, I genuinely thought it was a fake, put there as some vaguely cute piece of urban design when all this was built a few years ago. Then it moved. I wish I could have got a better photo of it — I had another one, a close-up, which made the wings look amazing but the head was out of focus and it didn’t locate it in this bizarre geographical context. I guess if birds like this can turn up in central London we may occasionally be doing something right with the environment.
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.
“Pssst. Do you think the humans know that we have seen through their devious ruse?”
“I don’t know. If we keep looking nervous, perhaps neither they nor the evil ducks will notice how we’ve reoccupied this strategic vantage point.”
“Why the frig anyone thought a plastic owl would scare us during the daytime, I’ve no…”
“Ssssh!”
Being 42 