Pictures of your locale

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

A little bit of China on the Cheshire plain, this beautiful pair of Mandarin Ducks. (The male is of course the peacock...)

[Harvey]

A misty day on the river last year. I can't remember exactly why I added a virus in the sky, apart from that it seemed visually interesting to me.

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

[Harvey]

I'm nearly certain the gull on the right is the one I've been watching since spring. It has stood all day, most days, observing the cormorants and herons, watching them patiently throughout the entire year so far. Incidentally, this years young terns and juvenile gulls are now diving into the water or floating along and then diving under and bringing up leaves from beneath the surface, exactly as if copying the fishing techniques of their distant cousins, the Cormorants and the herons. I have video of them doing this and if anyone is interested I can post it. This is behaviour I haven't seen before on the weir and it's quite intriguing. It's almost as if this particular gull is a shaman of it's species, absorbing everything, learning and passing the knowledge along to the latest crop of youngsters. Unfortunately their beaks and eyes appear not quite up to the task but they are trying.