R had a couple more appointments in Stratford this morning, and as he’s currently not driving I had to go along too, as chauffeur. I didn’t mind though, because there had been another light fall of snow overnight, and the bright early light offered the chance of some nice photos. As soon as I’d parked the car I headed along the river to the Bancroft Basin, which as I’d hoped was covered in a layer of ice and snow, and busy with gulls.
I was so taken with the look of the Black-headed and Herring Gulls against the snow that I walked around the edge of the Basin for quite a while, and took a ridiculous number of photos. I’ve chosen two of my favourites for this post: I can’t resist the wintry vibe of the flight shot, with the high-key background making the scene appear much colder and more isolated than it really was, but I also love the second image, which shows one of the gulls eating snow. At the time I thought this was rather strange behaviour (personally, I don’t think I’ve eaten snow since my age hit double figures) – but on reflection I’ve come to think: why not? The bird has to drink, after all, and clean snow is probably the purest water it ever gets the chance to take in. Still, I suspect it was uncomfortably cold against that delicate pink tongue, and I wasn’t tempted to try it again myself.
R: L2, C3, D19.
