The weather was odd today. I got caught in a torrential downpour at lunchtime, but we also had some beautiful early and late sunshine. I also managed to get some of my usual photographic subjects in unusual situations. So despite the rain, a good day.

I’ll start with a short sequence of a grey heron taken this morning. I’d spotted it on one of the No Fishing signs, but after a few minutes it flew to the edge of the pond and paused (posed?) on some rocks.

The next couple of photos show the heron taking to the wing. The spray was caused by either a duck or a gull (they were just out of shot).

The white goose was playing guard duty with the eight greylag goslings.

The young moorhens are growing up fast. here’s one of them preening itself, with an adult in close attendance.

The penultimate sequence is one of the more unusual encounters, I’ve seen at the pond. The photos aren’t great. My vantage point wasn’t good (a park bench was between me and a lot of the action), and they were moving fast. A small group of crows was picking through the grass for breadcrumbs and other tidbits, but were being confronted by a hungry rat. The rat was consistently the aggressor, rushing forward and leaping at the crows. As I said, the photos aren’t perfect, but they give something of an idea of what I was watching.

I’ll close with a photo taken early evening in the garden. We’d just had another downpour which triggered the appearance of a near-perfect double rainbow.

Camera note: all wildlife photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Rainbows taken with the EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens.