Now slow yew down ma ole booty

A warning sign on the Loke near the Long Pond. Someone taking the initiative, good to see.

Photos by  Margot K Juby

. . .

An Ugly Duckling

Well here's a rare sighting. What a mute swan? Rare? Well yes when it's in Pearson Park duck pond. In thirty odd years I've only seen about three swans in this postage stamp sized watering hole. I suppose all the trees and bushes must make landing and take off a difficulty plus I'm told it needs a good sixty yards to get really airborne and clear of obstacles. This one still had some brownish plumage suggesting it's a young bird and so was unaware of the perils of Pearson Park.

And while on an avian theme; the regular summer visiting swifts that should be here by now have failed to appear. Across England sightings are down by as much as 25%.  The globe, it seems, isn't working any more. The blue skies are a very dull and sterile place without them.

C'est un cygne

Pour faire la paix avec nos amis européens, la ville de la culture a décidé de ne parler que le français. Je sais que c'est très étrange mais, malheureusement, c'est officiel. On pense qu'il aidera le Brexit ...

Alors, le thème du 1er avril est «humide». Allez voir ce que d'autres poissons ont fait de cela ...

Salut! À demain mis amigos ...oops!  

Angel wing

Oh dear. This poor swan has angel wing, a deformity of the last joint of the wing that causes feathers to stick out from the body instead of lying flat. From the little I've read about it, it's thought it could be caused by too much protein in the diet and this guy swimming in a pond near Driffield was very fond of the white bread being thrown to him by little children. So if you're tempted to feed the ducks and so on chuck them some seeds instead.  I've also read that the outlook for birds with this condition is bleak but either there's a lot of this about or this guy has been lurking around Driffield for at least five years since I took the picture below in 2010.

Weekend reflections are here.

Mute Swan

Here's a few swan photos for no reason, who needs a reason?

Red and white

Boats

A mute swan stands in what appears to be a pile of old boats. This is the moorings at Beverley Beck.