Cygnet Stretches Its Wings

Better in large!
I visited Mount Pond twice today: once in the morning when the light was low and beautiful, and one in the afternoon when bread was involved!
I got loads of photos with which I was pleased, and choosing has been rather tricky.

I took this photo of the cygnet in the morning; when we (my mother and I) arrived at the pond, the swan family were all resting together, and doing lots of stretching and preening. I stroked one of the cygnets' wings then, and it snuffled and squeaked (!) but hardly moved away. A dog arrived and two of the swans took to the water; this one and one of the adults moved less urgently and joined the others at a leisurely pace. This one was last into the water, and flapped to catch up with the others, but then seemed to find its "stride", so kept flapping/flying across the pond. Perhaps this was an extended form of the morning stretch...?

I've also uploaded a picture of a juvenile black-headed gull to my blipfolio here.

I'm glad that I can upload pictures via my phone (so that I won't have to back blip loads...) but am sorry for my lack of commenting/replying. I'm still reading comments, but browsing is a bit clunky, so I'll catch up properly when I can get online on my computer. Please bear with me!