After yesterday’s deluge, some welcome sunshine. True, the ground was sodden, but it made a change to have blue skies. Still playing with the camera and trying things out, but there was no need to push ISO settings today so I just concentrated on taking pictures. Of coots.

Coot

There’s a small group of them on the pond, which is in itself slightly unusual. This isn’t one of their usual haunts, but they seem to be fitting in well with the ducks, gulls and moorhens. Like the slightly smaller moorhen, the coot is a member of the rail family and shares a number of characteristics, including absurd feet (though those were kept well out of sight today).

coot
“Smile for the camera”

Coot

Those are all early morning shots. There was more variety at lunchtime, and it was brighter.

There were ducks, dabbling…

ducks

Moorhens calling…

Moorhens

A herring gull splashing…

herring gull

And still there were coots, calmly patrolling the pond.

Coot

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. I added the
Canon EF 1.4xIII extender for the final shot of the gull.

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