A grey heron briefly visiting for a preen

I've been very busy attending to deadlines since I returned from my trip north. I think I might have come out the other side.

This morning whilst still in the middle of writing lengthy emails and checking documents, I looked up from my desktop Mac and saw a heron fly across the garden and land in the ash tree, on its regular perch.

I quickly went into photography mode as it gave me the impetus to try out my new mount adapter to fit my old telephoto on the new camera body, something I'd been meaning to do for a few days.

The heron stood its ground/branch whilst crows buzzed it, and started preening its feathers. After about fifteen minutes various noises startled it and it flew back the way it came, down over the back garden of our neighbours' houses, and towards the various garden ponds. I know my neighbours won't be too pleased to lose any more fish.