Easter wildlife update. 1st and 2nd April 2018

The sogginess slogs on, with continuous rain making attempts to do any gardening almost futile. Unseasonally low temperatures did not help. Even the snow that northern parts had this Easter would have been better than the monotony of dull, grey, drab skies and yet more of the wet stuff.  On the other hand, at least it doesn't look like a drought year.

Anyway, enough of my moaning.  We did pop down to the reserve in between the showers - checking the Met Office's rainfall radar before hand - and found a reasonably varied variety of wildlife. I must learn gull and tern recognition.  There are a lot of them, noisily defending their patch.

We ventured a little into Fleet Hill farm; I really must take another extended walk through it to familiarise myself with the layout and various lakes. We did notice extensive flooding along the Blackwater; and this after water levels had dropped by at least a foot (30cm). I believe there is a planning application to have a path running along the Blackwater.  Well, it will get flooded on a regular basis unless it is built up.

I may add more to this post over the week, depending whether we visit the reserve.  Though it is so cloudy outside right now it looks like late evening and I spy wet stuff falling from the sky.

All photos taken on my Panasonic FZ72 bridge camera. It already suffers from bland, washed out detail, which was made worse by the bad light conditions. In comparison the Canon SX-700HS point-and-shoot camera takes much better photos, with greater detail but doesn't have the same optical zoom (i.e. 30 vs 60) or a view finder. Sigh.  I have a fighting chance of holding the Panasonic steady as I can jam my arms against my body and ram the viewfinder up against my face. Whereas the Canon you have to hold out in front of you like a smart phone.  Double sigh.