Blackford Pond (and a thought-provoking experience)

Today, I had a very unusual and rather thought provoking occurrence at work. Our building is open to the public, and it doesn't have a specific reception, so very often people who are thoroughly lost turn up at our offices looking for directions. Today, an elderly couple in their late 60s, early 70s, turned up. They had travelled for three days - all the way from Australia - to find their daughter. She hadn't been in contact with them for ten years, and they'd managed to trace her to the university. They'd spoken with several members of HR, and had tracked down where she had possibly recently worked, so they were pretty sure she wasn't dead. The couple were exhausted, and very lost. I directed them as best I could. The whole episode made me uncomfortable and a little melancholy; they'd be tracing her from Australia as far as they could, so they'd booked a flight and come over to continue the work. They literally got into Edinburgh last night, had stayed at a nearby hotel, and had come straight to the uni first thing this morning. They seemed very excited at the prospect of finally finding her. And they were so elderly! It was as if they were trying to find her before they died. And the lady had fallen last night, and badly twisted her ankle, so she could barely walk - but they didn't have time to go and get it checked, or let her rest up. Now of course, I don't know the whole story; the daughter may have excellent reasons for not wanting to speak to them. Perhaps they did something terrible, so that she cut them out of her life; I know from experience that parents can do horrible things to their children (not my parents, I hasten to add), things that entirely justify their children never speaking to them again. But even so, it left me with an unsettled feeling for the rest of the day, and the desire to hug three very specific people.

On a lighter note, I also have a bunch of pictures to share. P and I went for a walk round Blackford Pond, where I was able to play with my zoom lens. It was a beautiful sunny spring day, with many baby waterfowl in evidence - and even a bunny - despite the teeming hordes of yelling small children and yummy mummies pushing buggies and conversing about where Jemima will go to school. There was one pair of mothers I did admire though: they'd somehow managed to persuade their three-or-four year olds that pushing buggies is the best thing ever. So the kids were happily pushing their own buggies round the pond (and racing each other) while the mothers sauntered behind, unencumbered by buggy. A very cunning plan, I thought. One of the mothers thought so too; she saw me looking, and shared a conspiratorial grin.

Anyway, on to the wildlife. Herein are photos of fuzzyness (ducklings) and fluffyness (cootlets), a bunny, and some rather comical ducks.

There were some lovely flowers around the pond. The yellow irises were stunning, particularly against the water which was reflecting the blue sky.



There were wild hyacinths too:




Now to the animals!

At one point, a wild rabbit ran out of the undergrowth and across the path to nibble on the grass beside the pond:


It was so cute! This was only about six feet away from where were sitting, if that.

There was a very regal swan drifting about, while its mate sat on the nest:


A group of male Mallards drifted by, eyeing us curiously:

(His head is so iridescent!)

This one came back for another look:


Some very obliging ones posed for me. For these two, it's worth clicking through to Flickr to see the large size - the detail on their feathers is stunning. Here are the direct links: Photo one Photo Two



There was a lot of preening going on:



This duck was having a good scratch:



The ducks weren't the only ones preening:


One duck came up onto the path and waddled along at what was (for a duck) a pretty fast trot. It made for a comical photo:


This being Spring, there were many babys. The coot babies were very fluffy, in a messy sort of way (in comparison to the soft, downy fluff of the ducklings). They were quite big, too. I wondered whether they were in the teenage coot stage; messy hair, and knobbly-kneed legs that seemed too big for them.
A good example:


This one gave the impression that he was displeased with having his photo taken:


This one just looked at me in a resigned sort of way:


They were still young enough to be fed by their mother:


She also brought up weed from the bottom of the pond for them. She'd usually give it to the chick nearest her at the time:


At which point, the other two would swoop in and grab as much weed from their sibling's beak as they could. All three would be cheeping furiously through beakfuls of weed:


A long-suffering parent, looking very serene:


Once they've lost their baby-feathers, their adult plumage comes through, and they look much smoother and sleeker:


Near where we were sitting was a duck couple who were trying to herd a gaggle of six ducklings, all of whom kept heading off in different directions all at once:


They did sometimes seem to play games of chase:


They were very curious, heading at once for a patch of weed:


Which they proceeded to peck furiously:


They came over to investigate the bank close to me. Ducklings have ridiculously large legs, for their size. Their legs are at least the same length that they are. You can see one leg under the water here:


I was able to get a couple of good close-up ducklings. They're so fuzzy! This photo also demonstrates the Giant Legs; that thing next to his back is his left leg:


Here's another adorable close-up (I love the water droplets on his back:


One last shot of the brood of ducklings: