Moody

I’d intended to get out early this morning and take some macro shots of the fabulous hoar frost. But I didn’t check the forecast carefully enough yesterday, and missed the bit where it said that the temperature was going to go up 5°C overnight. That’ll teach me to dismiss it as a work of fiction. Opening the curtains this morning to a scene of brown and grey, I was Not Happy, and as there was absolutely nothing photogenic to be seen in the muddy trench we call home, I wound up taking yet another drive into Stratford, and walking from Old Town along the north side of the river to the Bancroft Gardens.

I wasn’t going to post another churchyard Robin today. I really wasn’t. But as subjects they’re pretty hard to beat – I mean, look at that attitude! – and R likes it, and that’s reason enough for me to feature it. My title covers both the light and the bird, by the way: all the Holy Trinity Robins are getting increasingly territorial now, and seem prepared to attack almost anything that isn’t unequivocally bigger than they are. In fact, I had a general sense that many more birds were coming out and showing themselves off around the parks and gardens in Stratford today, and I could definitely hear more birdsong. The fact that it was suddenly so much warmer probably boosted the birds’ desire to be out meeting and greeting, but I think the main reason is that they know the season has now turned: the day is lengthening at both ends, which means that we’re closer to the end of winter than to its beginning.

Another sign of approaching spring greeted me at the river. Stepping down from the RST terrace into the Bancroft Gardens, and scanning the assembled waterfowl crowding around the wharf in the hope of being fed, I did a little skip and said “Yay! Tufties!!” A couple standing nearby turned and looked at me, and then exchanged a Special Look, but I gave them my most disarming smile and strolled on, for all the world as though this was totally normal behaviour. Which, for me, it is.

The Tufties can be seen in my second image, which I’m calling Reservoir Ducks even though they’re swimming on a river. The six of them – five males and one female – kept this tight formation for the whole time I stood watching them, which speaks to me of a migratory group, and even if I didn’t know for a fact that they weren’t here yesterday, I’d have concluded just from this behaviour that they flew in overnight. Oddly, it was only yesterday that R and I were talking about this season’s absence of wintering Tufted Ducks in Stratford, and I said that we might see a few stop-offs as they made their way back north to their breeding grounds – but I expected that to happen next month, not this weekend. I’m not sure if my mental calendar is running slow, or the ducks are travelling early, but either way, this little group looked to me as if they weren’t planning on hanging around, and if the weather holds I wouldn’t be surprised if they move on tonight.