Common moorhen with its chick

My morning was disrupted when I was told about an imminent meeting with a representative from our rail operator at Stroud station. It meant that I had to get to the station by lunchtime and I hardly had time for the various tasks I had intended to finish.

I parked near the canal and walked along the towpath into town and then up the back route to the station.  After the meeting, which was to help with the application for a grant fund which had to be submitted by today, I left the town clerk to go back to fill the form in, and I walked back to the river Frome and followed the path back through the nature reserve called Fromebanks.  I hoped to see kingfishers and dippers, but hardly saw any birds at all.  Two jays flapped on a branch above me at one point and I snapped away but the darkness under the tree canopy along the river meant my pictures weren't good.

After standing beside the river which was peaceful and enjoyable I walked back via the canal under Capel's Mill and watched some young ducks  for a while as they preened on the canal bank, once they had made it out of the water which was rather difficult for them.

Further along where the new stretch of the canal meets the still undredged stretch beneath Cheapside's high banks, I spotted a pair of moorhens with two very young chicks.  This little one climbed out of the water onto this small floating branch and shook the water off its back.  The parent then came across the canal and gave it a little food which it gobbled eagerly.  I then left them to go home.