Dreary

It was a pretty dreary day, but eventually it stopped actually raining, and at that point R and I decided to take a risk on Stratford not being too busy, and go out for a meal. The gamble paid off, if only for us: town was quiet enough on this fourth Saturday before Christmas to send the most bullish of traders into despair. 

Bird-wise it was also very quiet, and there was very little to be seen - especially in the churchyard, where it was so dark we even failed to spot each other - but there was a woman throwing bread to the Black-headed Gulls on the Bancroft Basin, and while the frenetic activity was essentially unphotographable in the Stygian gloom, I was able to capture a few gull portraits afterwards, when everything settled back down. How many more gull portraits I actually need, given the scores I already have on file, is questionable, but there's something I find quite pleasing about this low-key, low-contrast, low-energy shot of a first winter bird. The catchlight in its eye is genuine, by the way, and not added by me in post: the sun had just dropped below the cloud bank, and the sudden appearance of a streak of gold above the horizon briefly suggested a late improvement in the light - but almost at once it dropped behind the trees, and everything turned darker still.

I've now had to accept that it's very unlikely we'll see any Tufted Ducks on this stretch of the Avon this winter, which is rather sad. For a few years they were my go-to winter duck, and I had great fun trying to judge the optimal light for showing them to best advantage. But the numbers here have decreased steadily over the past five years, and I think the group that used to winter in Stratford have found a holiday home that suits them better. I'd very much like to be proved wrong, of course, but they tend to be early travellers, moving south in September and October, so their migration season must surely be over by now. With luck we might see some as they move north again in February, but they'll be heading for their breeding grounds at that stage, and won't make more than the briefest of rest stops.