Light on water

I love water and I love sunlight. Put the two together and the effects can be amazing, so here are a couple of light on water photos; the first close after Breedon Garden Centre and the second on Melbourne Pool.

Here, I particularly enjoyed the way the light emphasised the curve of the brook as it wound its way between the banks; dark with bare trees, dead wood and the slowly decomposing leaves from last year.

 Out of picture, the mood was lightened somewhat by a showing of pure white snowdrops.

And, with the day turning towards late afternoon and the sun beginning to lower in the sky (yes, I do know it's us moving really, not the sun) the path of light traced across the Pool left the far bank beautifully silhouetted.

The tops of the trees remind me a little of fragments of torn spider webs against the sky; but also of something else which I can't quite put my finger on...

But, rats!, I was just too quick to catch the duck in the reflected light. Should have looked more carefully!

Waterfowl great and small

Lots of piccies of water fowl today. Some are mine and some were taken by a friend.

This female Mallard was enjoying a paddle along the top of the weir, no doubt looking for anything tasty.

My feeble 3.2x optical zoom was no where near good enough to capture a photo of this Great Crested Grebe. Besides, every time I pointed my camera at him, he upended and resurfaced across the other side of the Pool. He was leading me a merry dance and probably enjoying every second of it!! Thank you LC; 10x zoom and he posed!

This coot was much more obliging, paddling right up to the bank for me to snap. Though I do suspect he was more interested in discovering whether or not we might have anything food-like about our persons. I love the way he swam through the pool of sunlight, sparkling off the water.

We couldn't decide whether this Canada Goose was after food or just wanted to chase us away. He was certainly hissing a bit; though he did pipe down when we hissed back.

And finally...

(Another one from LC)

The Swans were majestic, gliding across the water.