Hormonal

Ummm..... surely you two are a little young to be indulging in this kind of behaviour?

Teenagers, honestly..... I don't know - anyone would think they were the future, or something.

It was so cold in Stratford at lunch time that the Bancroft Basin was in the process of freezing over. It was also trying to snow. Quite a few of the waterfowl, including some of the older and more sensible swans, had left the river and were roosting on the tow path; but this pair were just too in love to notice how cold their extremities were presumably becoming.

I really wanted to go owling this afternoon, but when I looked at the weather forecast for the high Cotswolds, common sense prevailed, and I stayed home in the warm. I just hope the owls manage to do the same thing over the next few days.

There's a selection of today's birds here, including one of the scores of redwings that were rummaging about in the park on the south side of the Avon. I was surprised to come across them, partly because I haven't seen any for over a fortnight and I was starting to think that they might have returned home, and partly because they were bold enough to be approached, which definitely hasn't been the case for most of the winter. In fact this individual had come so close to me that I was on the point of having to wind in the lens, when it was disturbed by a Labrador huffing along the path.