Nature, and Waxing Poetic

The British Isles (or what I've seen of them so far) are amazing. There's this amazing mix of plants and animals that I've grown up with, and ones that I've only heard of in books. The weather here is so changeable, going from fog to sunshine in half an hour, and from spring weather to a winter storm in a night. The snow falls, but never stays on the ground for a whole day before melting off again. The loch which I walk over every morning for classes is slowing de-icing, and the water birds who live here are loving it. I decided to go for a walk around the perimeter of the loch yesterday, and got some great pictures, which I'm not going to upload to flickr, but I'll post them here!
Flowers are starting to break up out of the soil, and seeing the heads of lilies and daffodils, as well as these small white flowers, reminds me of The Secret Garden. These little ones are coming up all through the woods.


There are even robin redbreasts! Not like the American kind, which are big and have a very distinct area of the red-orange color. These are little birds, about the size of a chickadee, and they're so funny to watch!

I went down to see the ducks, geese and swans yesterday as well, and there was a nice guy feeding them leftover bread. He asked if I wanted some, and I said sure, and was IMMEDIATELY surrounded by expectant waterfowl...

They were all over me, to the point of standing ON my shoes and looking up at me all "Hey! Can we please have some bread?? Please!?" They reminded me of when Cricket begs at the table. :-)

And there's one kind of bird with the strangest feet you've ever seen. I've been trying to figure out if it's a water bird or a land bird. Check this out.

Just LOOK at those feet!! Anyhow, this bird is called a "common coot." They just couldn't come up with a better name if they tried.

And among these wild birds I found a couple of stowaways. Two farm ducks who escaped to the wild! They reminded me of Ferdinand the duck, from Babe (which is a movie among my top ten!).

But, I think my favorite thing from yesterday had to be the swans.


They're so big and graceful. I fell asleep listening to Trumpet of the Swan last night, and even though these aren't trumpeters, they're still beautiful. They don't sit and beg like the ducks; they just bump up against the shore with their big white wings and look pretty until somebody throws them some.

Anyway, that was my nature rant and my most pic heavy post EVER! I'll hope to talk to ya'll later, after my great backpacking adventure this weekend! Prepare for more nature meanderings!