my patch

My apologies for the silence of late. It's not that I haven't been out and about, but that I have been too otherwise busy to write about it. Not helped by the fact that the laptop I use sometimes to do that while relaxing on the sofa in the evening won't boot up at the moment...



As I was doing another one of those foreshore cleanups with Thames21 this morning, right at the south edge of the Thames part of my patch, I thought I'd take some photos from that angle.



That the whole length of it starting from Crabtree Wharf, where Cormorants and Gulls like to stay at high tide, but also where Starlings and Ringed-Neck Parakeets are roosting/nesting in the pillars(?). The River Café is after that first tall building with the semi-circular roof.



Then you have the boat pier where Black-Headed Gulls like to stand on the ramp, and Mallards like to have a nap at high tide.



Up to Hammersmith Bridge, and, as you can see, on a Sunday morning, the river can get rather busy... and as if there had not been enough disturbance with us cleaning up, there was also a whole flotilla of these brightly coloured canoes and kayaks on the river.



On my way back, I noticed this Cormorant which I had seen previously (7th October). It is unfortunately recognisable because it has caught its neck in some kind of wide mesh plastic netting:



I don't think it is finding it too comfortable:



I'll see how it develops if I can. Yesterday, via @stuhar on twitter, I saw this set of photos of albatross chicks on Midway Atoll, dead with bellies full of plastic trash. These are very disturbing photos, and if they are not an eye opener for some, I don't know what will... As I tweeted then: "This is one of the reasons I volunteer with @thames21 to remove some of it from the foreshore." These and the photos above.

I'll finish on a much lighter note. I doubt these 2 young Swans are siblings given the moulting difference. No adult were in sight. Can they pair up this young? Once again, I'll see how this develop if it does.