I went on, for me, a rare expedition today. My excuse was taking my recently deceased friend's son, Luka, on a bird-watching trip to the Wetlands Centre in Barnes. A place his dad was going to take him, but....
Anyway, this was great for me on three counts. Firstly, I got out on the first nice sunny day for ages to do something I enjoy, which, like for Luka, is not really bird watching so much as bird spotting. Luka and I discussed this and neither of us really want to spend a long time looking at bird behaviour. We are closer to twitchers, but without the obsessiveness. Just like being able to spot a bird that we haven't seen before, or don't see all that often. The fun/skill is in the identification. Anyway, the activity was nice.
Then I had the pleasure of Luka's company. Genuinely couldn't have wished for more congenial conversation. Just a really good laugh. And such a sensible, grounded young man - so not the stereotype of a teenage boy. Although I suspect most teenagers don't fit the stereoptype to be honest. The impression I get, having seen many of my contemporary friends bringing up their teenagers, is that other people's teenagers are wonderfully smart, witty, polite and altogether delightful company. It is just your own teenagers that are lazy, surly, annoying and generally difficult to live with. Maybe the answer is, like wife-swapping, you should do teenager swapping.
And thirdly, I get all the kudos from friends and colleagues for taking my deceased friend's son out, like I am making some grand sacrifice in my mate's memory. ("That's nice of you" was response from a couple of people when I said I was doing this.) When all I am actually doing is having the best day out I have had in ages with terrific company. (But maybe I shouldn't be saying that out loud or I lose all the creds😃)
The Wetlands Centre in Barnes isn't just for birds, but they are the primary focus. The clue is in the title. It is meant to be an area of wetlands preserved for the natural world. It was created towards the end of the last century out of redundant reservoirs.
It has been done very cleverly. An aerial view reveals a rectangular site, but when inside you see a number of nice little ponds and meadow areas with trees around that make you feel like you are on a winding country walk. And in addition to the main lake with native birds ...
...it has a number of captive birds - mostly ducks and geese - from wetland areas around the world. It has for example, some Hawaiian Geese who seem much happier in Barnes than Hawaii. (It also has a pair of Asiatic otters.) And we did briefly spot what I think was a water vole. And there are loads of dragonflies if they float your boat. (I like them but too hard to photograph.)
In contrast water birds are great to shoot. Most stay very still and they don't hide in trees behind foliage. Only annoying ones are grebes. A number of photos below are of a common grebe, but I tried taking many more. They dive. Especially when you have just got them perfectly in frame. Just about to click and they disappear. Grrr.
My other bit of excitement was getting my old lean-to shed rebuilt. Basically the wooden framework had sagged to such a degree that one couldn't get the doors to open. Fine if you want a time capsule containing 20 year old tins of paint but not if you want to store garden tools and seat cushions. So I got a carpenter in to do the job. And then I spent the Bank Holiday painting it.
Old shed with doors open to the maximum extent they could under sagging roof.
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