WWT London Wetland Centre (Tuesday 7th March 2017)

I'm still working through the pictures I took on Tuesday, when I drove to London. The pictures I took fell into three groups: those taken in Chilton Foliat by the River Kennet on the drive there; those taken at the London Wetland; and those taken by the Thames in Hammersmith. The blip shows the Main Lake, whilst the Extras come from the other two groups, plus one of the two Bewick's Swans at the Centre, both born at WWT Llanelli last July.

It was the first time I'd been to this WWT site, and each has its distinctive identity. The London Centre is in Barnes, adjacent to the Thames, and is dominated by the vast Main Lake, with a surprisingly contradictory backdrop of London buildings and cranes, and it lies beneath the flightpath in to Heathrow, which the birds seem not to mind.

They also have a pair of Asian small-clawed otters that were born in WWT Washington and I got a number of shots of them at their 1400 hr feed.

I left at 1600 hr and the next nearly five hours in London were spent mostly in transit, finding a parking spot, crossing London in overcrowded tubes, struggling unsuccessfully with bus timetables and routes, and mostly doing a great deal of walking.

There was a brief interlude in the middle of all this when I caught some of Laura Marling's set at the HMV shop in Oxford Street - the reason I was in London in the first place. She and her band were magnificent and the sound system crystal clear and it was the first gig I'd been to in seemingly living memory, but I had problems finding the store as during my time in London it was somewhere near Tottenham Court Road, whereas now it is next to Bond Street tube station, but confusingly on the same road, so no clue it had moved.

The venue was intimate, holding an audience of about 300, and was baking hot, but was free to the first purchasers of her new album, Semper Femina, which arrived on release day on the Friday afterwards, and came with a second CD of a live performance of the album.

I got home a little before eleven after a further two hours driving, totally exhausted, but glad to have made the trip.

L.
11.3.2017 (1910 hr)

Blip #2044 (#2294 including 250 archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #014
Blips/Extras In 2017 #068
Day #2539 (509 gaps from 26 March 2010)
LOTD #1279 (#1405 including 126 on archived blips)

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust seriesLandscape series

Taken with Pentax K-50 (Red) and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

A Day In London, 7 March 2017 (Flickr album)(Work in progress)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Laura Marling - Nouel (2017)

One year ago:
Cherhill