Babe

At least, I think it's a juvenile, rather than a moulting adult: it had the look of slight bemusement I associate with young birds when they've recently been kicked out of the nest.

Today is R's birthday (he'd rather I didn't tell you which one), so I asked him what he'd most like to do with the day, and the answer was a morning walk around Croome, followed by lunch at a favourite restaurant. Given that he might have said a 20-mile bike ride followed by me cooking lunch, I was quite pleased.

The baby robin was sitting on a tree guard, as they quite often do, next to the path that runs through the shrubbery, and sat rather nicely for its portrait; it's R's favourite shot of the day, and as it is his birthday I thought I should make it my main image. My own favourite is the Migrant Hawker in the extras; it's not as crisp as I'd like because the light wasn't good enough for a really fast shutter speed, but given that it's not bad. The last couple of times I was at Croome I was concerned that there wasn't a single hawker of any description to be found, but today there were several Migrant and a Brown cruising the lake, and a couple of Southern hunting in the shrubbery, so it feels as though order has been restored to the universe.

The Hawker is obviously smaller than the robin, but the robin is a proper close-up, so I've decided to allow myself a Tiny Tuesday tag.