Tufted ducks

I had a perfectly pleasant time at the pond on Wandsworth Common this afternoon: no hoodlums or sadists... Thank you all: I'm grateful for all the solidarity I received in comments yesterday.

Today was rather grey and gloomy, but it was still nice to spend some time between things checking up on the birds: the oldest cootlings are looking surprisingly large, and are being much more independent, venturing out much further from the rest of the family (to the point where I saw one about 150m away from the others searching for its own food in a different part of the pond!). Even the youngest cootlings are pretty large and independent; I shall have to visit other ponds if I need a red and yellow tufty fix! To that end, I checked up on the coots I'd seen sitting on eggs, and all three are still sitting on eggs so no brand new cootlings quite yet...

I am pleased with this photo because it strikes me as somewhat print-ish (like a woodcut or linocut). Too many curves perhaps... I also like the way that even in the grey and monochrome scene, the duck's startling yellow eyes shines out dramatically...

I was actually more pleased with some of my cootling pictures, but didn't want to blip them two days in a row (particularly as the shots I liked most were more "bird-in-mercury" pictures). Maybe I shouldn't resist...