Unprepared
It’s funny, yesterday morning I was writing a future blog post, on staying safe outside, and one major element I covered preparedness, especially with clothing. Today I looked out of my window, saw blue skies and headed out for a short walk. I managed to be totally unprepared though.
Unprepared
What did I do? Well although it was raining solidly yesterday (and a little snow) I saw no obvious floods from my window so was wearing my walking boots. A few little puddles they can handle, they are of course waterproof, deep floods not so much (they only cover my ankles). So as I walked through the old lock and was confronted by a foot of water across the paths I realised I may have made a mistake.
Perhaps next time I will follow my own advice and dress for the weather, as well as being prepared for eventualities.
Changing Weather
As you can see from the above image, the day was bright and sunny, as I sat looking out of the aqueduct hide. A few Gadwall were mingled with the larger Mallard populations; Teal hunkered down against the scrubby banks; a couple of Pochard gracefully swam the cold flood waters; Even a small party of Common Snipe flew about. The day felt like a lovely winters day.
But it didn’t last.
By the time I had made my way to the farm hide the clouds were streaming in, grey skies formed, and the day grew darker.
Believe it or not there was about 20 mins between those two images. You’d hardly think it were the same day really.
Moody Images
Sadly the day didn’t really improve much, and the rest of the reserve paths were flooded, meaning I turned around after the Farm hide (where the second image was photographed). Serves me right for being unprepared really.
I used the opportunity instead to take a few “Atmospheric” images of the reserve and surround.
Other Photos
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