February 2nd – As I got back to the Innovation Centre at 5:25, I caught sight of the lights reflecting on the boating lake, and just had to take a picture. It was then I realised it was only just coming on to dusk. In January, we clawed back about an hour from the darkness, and all the time the rate of change is increasing.

Spring will soon be here.

March 22nd – If you can, please visit Chasewater and feed the waterfowl on the boating lake. This mixture of ducks, swans, coots and geese are all ravenous due to the snow, cold weather and lack of benevolent visitors. The swans were so hungry, they forgot to be aggressive. I forgot to bring them food. I felt guilty, they clearly felt cheated,

Oh bugger.

October 19th – Working from home today, I spun out late afternoon on errands and to get some shopping. It was misty and grey, but all the same, I headed to Chasewater to check out the levels. It was pretty deserted at 5pm, and the boating lake was a peaceful soup of wildfowl, who flocked around me hoping I had food. The sheer variety in the duck population – domestic, blended with mallard, crossed with tufted ad infinitum – was fascinating. Ducks will mate with just about anything they can, and the diversity here is illuminating. 

I see the domestic white geese are still terrorising visitors, too, the aggressive devils. Goose bills are the stuff of nightmares, eh? Look at all those serrations…