Christine's walking & birds blog

The Flood

I walked from the Lake End Road car park late afternoon. Water rails were squealing from reed-beds in several locations along the river, and a Cetti's warbler called.

As I climbed the bank to look over the floods, I caught my breath at what I saw. After the winds of yesterday, it was completely still; and the main component of the view was water. Still, steely water. Two swans sailed just below on the ditch, and beyond them, beyond the pool on the common, half-seen cattle grazed in a long scarf of white mist that trailed across the grass. Just above the line of mist I could see the traffic on the road. The setting sun, colouring the sky in the west, saved the scene from dreariness.

I looked the other way and took this picture of the flood in the field, probably the most extensive I've yet seen it. Even as I clicked off a shot, the mist thickened until the far side of the flood and most of the birds were invisible.