Reflective

Before meeting up with R in Stratford for lunch, I walked along the river in search of either dragons or winter ducks, but sadly found neither. I did have a couple of thrilling views of one of the local Kingfishers though - once in flight and calling, and once perched in a willow on one of the islands, watching the river beneath it for passing fish - but I couldn't get nearly close enough for good photos. Still, any sighting of a Kingfisher makes my spirits soar, and I skipped off to lunch with a broad smile on my face.

After we'd eaten R and I took another walk, not least to try to mitigate the effects of the hot chocolate fondant and ice cream we'd shared for dessert - and I was happy to see a few Black-headed Gulls floating on the Bancroft Basin, in rather nice light. For me these shots are always at least as much to do with the quality of the reflections on the water as the bird, but you can't always see what the camera is picking up, and that was the case here. I thought I could see a trace of dark red within the surface ripples, but when I uploaded the photos I was surprised at the extent and variety of the colours described by my long lens.

R: C6, D8.