Mr. Goosle: Always Alert

More dramatic in large ("L").

It was lovely to visit the Goosles this morning in the crisp and contrasty early light. Mr. & Mrs. were on the island when I arrived (naughty Goosles...) but after some serious preening, they swam across (Mr. is v. handsome), went to the edge, and came out in search of fresh food. After leaving the pond, Mrs. drank from a puddle ("Puddle Goosle"): they're very keen on puddle water (here is an October picture of Mr. drinking from another puddle). Mrs. prefers only the freshest greens, so they tramped the whole way across the normal grazing ground (where all the other geese graze) to the very edge of the common by the road, where Mrs. found fresh, long shoots growing under the barrier dividing the pavement from the grass ("Urban Goosle").

My blip is Mr. keeping watch while Mrs. grazed under the trees: the light was very contrasty and he kept walking across shadows, with the light playing over his curves and occasionally catching his eye brightly (like here). This is cropped, and the saturation is reduced very slightly.

p.s. I struggled to choose today; I put up Mr. because I love the way that the light catches their eyes, but was torn, and had others still... I'm going back to Oxford tomorrow, so it had to be a Goosle blip. I'll miss them.