A familiar squawk

Cooler and cloudy again this morning, though the sun shone through the clouds later on. I was none the worse for getting to bed late after last night's nose bleed, but could have slept better. We had our Saturday pancake breakfast, then I spent the morning editing photos taken in Barry yesterday. A short batch were taken with a setting accidentally selected to give a one second burst of images either side of the apparent moment of focus and shutter opening. These are saved as a tiny MP4, but you can select the sharpest of  several frames you want to keep if there's a noticeable difference between them, as when a subject moves in a fraction of a second. I'm glad to have worked out finally how this feature functions, although it's not something I'd count on using. For me there's an element of randomness in any pictures taken, I get lucky sharp shots, and unlucky blurred ones, and that's good enough for me.

Kath and Clare went to meet Emma and her mother Avril in Coffee #1 and I stayed behind, happy to cook my own meal in the middle of the day. I went to Thompsons Park while the girls sat in the garden enjoying the sun. As I arrived I heard a familiar squawk looked up and caught sight of a green ring necked parakeet. It's the first time I've seen one in Cardiff, although I've heard that squawk from a tree on the Taff footpath several times in this past year. It's familiar enough from the time I've spent on the Costa del Sol over the years, where they are found in large flocks in some coastal resorts.

The moorhen family was out foraging along the edge of the reed bed much closer to the pond boundary fence. Photos of the chicks look blurred initially, but their well developed legs are in sharp focus, the camera registers imperfectly the fine black down that covers their bodies, absorbing rather than reflecting light, as shiny feathers will later on. This makes it harder to spot them when they're in the shadows. It's excellent camouflage.

I went home for a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and said goodbye to Kath who left for Kenilworth at five. Then I went out again to finish my step quota for the day before supper. Then the rest of the evening, binge watching episodes of Australian crimmie 'High Country' set in the forested rural uplands of the State of Victoria. Wonderful scenery, complex story about identity and origins.