I hadn’t been expecting to make another trip to Stratford today, but the optician has done a sterling job for R and crafted his new glasses in just four days, so late this morning we went off to collect them. While R dealt with that errand, I walked into town along the river, where the only bird of real interest was a Red Kite, flying high over the recreation ground. I watched it for a while as it circled slowly nearer, but before getting close enough for decent photos it changed direction and moved away again. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a Red Kite in Stratford, but they’re still relatively rare in the town – though I dare say in time they’ll be raiding people’s gardens for bird food/kittens/small children, as local legend in Oxfordshire has it that they do there.
Just as I reached the Bancroft Gardens wharf, with nothing other than tiny record shots of the Red Kite on camera, an unexpected thinning of the murky grey cloud let through a shaft of what looked almost like sunlight, briefly dappling the surface of the river with silver. So yes, this is yet another Black-headed Gull, but rescued – I’m going to claim – by an element of interest in the water that frames it.
R: L2, C3, D22.
