The contortions of swans. One pair by the edge of the water at West Park twist and stretch so their beaks can reach every feather while they preen.
A cob nearby lowers its head and raises its wings to make itself as menacing as possible as it stalks towards a rival, hidden by a bush.
A front garden, covered all over in tarmac to get that low-maintenance tidy look. But every few inches, another coltsfoot has forced a way, displacing the tarmac and thriving. Between these gaps, patches of moss are spreading year by year.
Some ducks are at home high in trees. But others tend to stay near to ground level when they are on dry land. Mallards are of this latter type.
This female mallard was perching right at the top of one of the bushes by the lake in West Park. Between thei height of the bush itself and the steep shore, she was a good ten feed above the water she was looking out over.
From the same magnolia which featured in a post yesterday, the flowers now opened and at least one having been fertilised already.
A pair of ravens in the air over West Park. Not sure exactly what they were doing, but they weren’t just passing over. These shots span a ten minute period where I saw them first from one spot, then later from elsewhere. On the second sighting, they seemed to be circling one of the islands.
Don’t look too closely, and the texture is more like the back of some small furry mammal than something from the plant kingdom. Actually, they are the buds of magnolia flowers, just about to open.