Little Blue Flower

As mentioned yesterday, this little bush is flowering now - at the end of November and with temperatures down to zero! It does make you wonder just what is likely to be around to pollinate at this time of year. It is lovely to see this small touch of fresh colour - although you have to look closely to see it.

After taking this picture, I took my daughter to work and then went for a walk, getting some nice frosty bracken shots and cold landscapes. I also identified a shot for a misty morning. It will require several visits to get the right conditions, but should be worth it.

Then it was home, and some cleaning and then I made a flask of soup and headed off down to the river with my one-man hide.

Disappointingly, the light was poor. Having had all these crisp, clear days, it had clouded over and was pretty dull. At first there wasn't much around, but then some little grebes came through, and a solitary redshank. Two kingfishers flew past, one in pursuit of the other. Having seen the other one off, one of them then turned around and flew back upriver - much too quickly for me to get a photo.

As I was thinking of going, a party of redshank arrived just upriver and then worked their way down towards me, passing just in front of me. Unfortunately, there was even less light at this point, and I was so busy taking pictures, that I didn't check my shutter speed - and most of the birds were blurred in the frame. I think this is called 'learning from experience'.