Birdwatching

The buildings where the statistics classes are held are out in the countryside. After a really productive morning it looked like we'd finish early, so me and a friend went for a walk around a local lake. I've done a lot of garden birdwatching over the years, but water birds are mostly a mystery, so I hoped to see something new and exciting.

There was a lot of ice about. We got excited when we heard movement in the trees down a bank, but it turned out to be an ice sheet moving underneath, catching low-hanging twigs. We then found some mallards, but, y'know, mallards.

Eventually, the ice gave way to open water, and we came upon half a dozen great crested grebes and a big flock of tufted duck. I'd only seen grebes from a distance before, so that was exciting, and tufted duck were completely new. The males are black with bold white wings, and both sexes have the eponymous tuft off the backs of their heads. Fabulous!

My friend is a keen photographer. Here are a couple to set the scene:

 

A beautiful close-up of two of the grebes:

And a lovely shot of the two of us:

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