Egyptian Geese: fledgling in flight.

Look in large ("L"). Isn't it cute!? They're doing so well...
This one was slowing down to land on the ground, which is why all of its feathers are spread and its legs are dangling down.

I visited Eagle Pond this morning before the sun was really up in the sky: it was getting brighter, but there was no direct sunlight and the light was deceptively low, which made capturing flight less straight-forward...

It was a good morning for fledgling flight thought; the Egyptian geese were on top form. When I arrived, 4 fledglings were on the island with their parents (well, 2 of them were actually up the tree on the island, which was rather amusing). The father was chasing them off whenever he saw them, which made me think he was actually trying to drive them away, but it turns out he was just feeling territorial about his island, or perhaps was simply irritated with them...
The other 4 fledglings were out on the grass by the side of the pond, so I was standing between them and the water (and the rest of their family). The father then started his whiny sounding caw-ing which he's previously used to encourage the fledglings to fly, and (true to form) the four behind me stood up to attention, and one even started calling back (squeakily). They then took off and did an impressive loop around the pond before landing on the water.
That wasn't enough apparently, and the father called again so they took off again, and flew a wide loop before landing near the island and joining the family.
After another 5 minutes, the father and mother both started calling, and this time the whole family took off and flew across the water to the large expanse of grass between the pond and Clapham South to graze.

Lots of flight, and lots of funny calling; I enjoyed seeing them flying so expertly, and it was nice to see the whole family moving together despite the father looking like he was trying to get his fledglings to move along and leave him alone...