And jump!

I ended up at the village pond this morning, hoping to get a glimpse of the moorhen chicks which I'd seen briefly on various walks. A couple did put in an appearance (see extra) and I was very surprised to see 5 juvenile female mallards. To the best of my knowledge, the 2 drakes who live on the pond have had a bachelor existence for a number of years.

The water levels are quite low and the pond is being taken over by bulrushes, which small birds (presumably sparrows) are frequenting - that's a shot for another morning, I hope.  Anyway, these two sparrows were hopping around on the edge of the pond and I got the lucky launch shot, which I layered with the previous shot of the sparrow crouching.