Off to see the ducks,

There's such a lot of ducks to see.

An ornithological afternoon. Rather than head towards the hurly-burly of the water park we opted for the opposite direction to some bird hides. Good it was too: Shellduck, Teal, Pochard, Cormorant, Gadwall, GoldenEye, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Cormorant, Lapwing, Oystercatcher to name but a few.

Rare to see Oystercatcher so far inland but we meet a lady ornithologist (a real one who knew what she was talking about, not pretend wannabes like us) who mentioned she'd seen some Oystercatcher but none around at the moment. As she was speaking there was the familiar "peeep-peeep" call and a pair flew overhead. She also reckoned there was a single Widgeon around but we faulted to spot it. She also mentioned the single GoldenEye which we did manage to find from the next hide.

The cormorants were a little far away for my phone but Liz has a better picture from her camera

Spring is here and clouts can be cast

Wrong I know that is a picture of Blackthorn (Sloe) blossom and until recently (5 minutes ago) corrected by Liz I had assumed that May referred to Blackthorn. She correctly assures me I am mistaken and May is Hawthorn which is in leaf now but a few weeks away from blossoming - makes sense really, Blackthorn would probably have been called March!)

And whilst my attempt at a photo of hazel catkins was horribly out of focus I did manage the pussy willow

One last photo. I believe that any walk passing a canal lock just has to have the photograph.