Spring is in the air..

The song is right when it talks about Spring being 'in the air'...I don't know what it is ...it's not that it's any warmer - because it isn't; it's not that the sun is shining more - because it isn't; it's not even that there are buds beginning to burst out, because they aren't really...but nevertheless yesterday morning there was a definite sense in the air of something new. The birds could feel it - there was a Collared Dove roocoocooing and the ducks on the canal have started to hang around in obvious pairs.

Even more interesting, on my walk to work yesterday I saw nine Greylag Geese and three pairs of Goosander (known as Common Merganser in US). Goosanders don't frequent this stretch of the canal with any regularity, but I see them occasionally at this time of year. They are lovely birds, with a serrated bill to eat fish. The darker female is on the right and the black and white male to the left.

They weren't keen on having their picture taken, refusing to get together and pose. And I didn't have my long lens with me, so this is a poor photo really - though I did like the shimmery colours reflected on the water. Strange that it looks so rich, as the reflected building is in reality a tumbledown brick mill - not at all beautiful. It's been derelict for years and is gradually being taken over by nature.

Anyway, as you can imagine, I arrived at work with - yes - a spring in my step!