Late

I'd thought that the tufted duck season was over in our neck of the woods, but when R and I were driving over Bidford Bridge this morning, on our way back from coffee at Hillers, I spotted four of them rummaging around in the shallows on the south side of the river. Later in the day I took myself off for a walk around the Barton section of the Heart of England Forest, which was a pleasant way of taking exercise on a sunny winter's afternoon, but though I had a few nice bird sightings among the trees, no-one was cooperating with the camera. Arriving back at the car with nothing more than an extremely claggy pair of walking boots, I remembered the tufties, and decided to go back to Bidford to see if they were still there.

By this time it was getting on towards four o'clock, so the sun was quite low, but the Avon was glassy calm and from the south bank the reflections of the buildings and trees on the north side were startlingly clear. They'd have made an interesting photographic project in their own right, but I especially liked the effect when a water bird swam through and disrupted them. Here my tufted duck is moving the reflection of a large, pale tree, and introducing sky into it.

After taking numerous photos I was simply standing on the bank, camera lowered, idly watching the ducks and swans, when a streak of iridescent turquoise suddenly flashed across my field of vision, and I turned in time to see it dip under one of the arches of the old bridge and head away eastwards. I rushed up onto the bridge to see if it had perched anywhere within view, which it hadn't, and waited and watched there for a while in the vain hope that it would come back. Then I walked round to St Lawrence's cemetery, which is about the furthest point on this side of the village from which you can watch the river, but to no avail. Eventually I gave up and made my way back to the car, laughing at myself for having put so much useless effort into chasing a kingfisher, but I truly hope the day never comes when I can see one without experiencing a thrill of pure delight.

My most interesting photo from Hillers is here if you'd care to see it.