Saturday, August 15, 2020

Dank day

 Dank, wonderful descriptive word. Damp and dripping but certainly not cold.  Overcast, sticky, humid and very foggy on the Tiverton Canal this morning.  I drove out to see if I could find the staff parking for the temp job I start in September.  So, in need of a stroll I headed to the canal.  I've seen kingfishers along here before so my eyes and ears were alert.  

The banks' foliage was high and reedy, beautiful brown velvet looking bulrushes, tangles of brambles in the hedges.  The water had drifts of yellow and also white and pink water lillies which I stopped to admire.  Lots of ducks - drakes still in eclipse plumage.  A big family of swans sailed upstream. Six fawny brown babies paddling away and peeping their calls to mum and dad as they swam ahead.  Walking in their company I found myself passing moorhens and a couple of their chicks who swam away with the head back and forward motion that looks so inefficient and tiring!

Past the kingfisher tree where I'd seen them before and no such luck this time - the water had a green algae scum and the drizzling damp got steadily more unpleasant - a waterproof jacket and hood in a heatwave is not great.  And still no kingfishers on the way back. 


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