Bartimaeus

We headed off from Evesham, starting off the 'wrong way' returning to the previous lock to find water. Strangely there were taps near the mooring labelled for boaters' use but also saying it was non-drinking water. 

There were plenty geese around. I had noticed a pink footed one before and seen a little pouch or growth below its head. None of the geese in my bird book has this as a noteworthy feature. I had thought it might help me identify it since pink feet alone is not enough, a greylag or pink footed goose I wondered. I concluded greylag by the beak.

This day I was seeing a large collection of swans, over twenty. They were being fed and had gathered on the far side of the river, by the Abbey Park. They were joined by other waterfowl. Some bold geese had left the water to get ahead of the others, joining the pigeons.

This bridge lets you go through any arch. It is deep all the way across. We successfully filled up with fresh water then turned round and came back through the bridge and on down the Avon. 

As we reached the next lock we noticed a jetty for mooring. You had to go the other side to use it. I fancied mooring here. It seemed an appealing contrast to the town, to be in the middle of nowhere, with water all around us. Shane reversed and went round the correct side of the jetty, leaving the other side for lock users, we moored up. As it turned out noone used the jetty approaching the lock. 

It turned out a great spot for wildlife. We saw an egret briefly before it disappeared behind a tree and a few grey wagtails were around, skittish as ever. A pair of kingfishers flew past a few times. I was so glad we had stopped there. 

A blue hot air balloon passed over us in the late afternoon. The sky was a much brighter blue than it was.

We had an al fresco dinner, wondering if it might be the last in the year. As we sat inside in the evening one of the wagtails trotted past the window on the jetty, but grey on grey at dusk is had to see in low light.

Later we had a great display of largish bats swooping fluttering and feasting for quite a while until it was too dark to see any more.

In the morning it was greyer still. Autumn mists have begun. The view towards the weir and canoe portage looked eerie.

It soon burnt off and became very warm.  I was very pleased when another grey wagtail, much yellower than before came alongside the window as we had breakfast.

I helped push a lock gate or two for boats passing through, while I was sitting on the bench by the lock. Some men came to trim branches by the canoe portage spot, before the weir. I didn't think they had planted this toy, while pruning, but having hung around there, looking for birds - a heron, ducks and moorhens or a cormorant liked to be on the weir - it was only then that I spotted it for the first time, stuffed in a metal tube. Strange I hadn't noticed it before.

We are only meant to stay one night so reluctantly we prepared to leave. A swan was just in front of Bartimaeus. Because the river water is much clearer than the canal, we could see it reaching to the bottom and pulling up weed to eat and bringing it's head out to slurp it down. It was fun to watch. The water did distort the neck a little though.

We had lunch ourselves then worked through the lock and enjoyed a sunny afternoon, though we only went as far as the next available mooring. As we passed a tree Shane pointed out cormorants. There are three sillouhetted here in the bare branches, but one is hard to make out from the branches.

I have read that cormorant droppings kill a tree, but it might need more than three to kill one off. 

The mooring we came across was another country spot but didn't seem to be nearly as full of wildlife, and hadn't anywhere to wander, so the field of sheep was the main entertainment. There were no bats this time.

It was another misty morning, but no wagtails trotted past. Shane shared a fake captcha, at breakfast in the family chat. Nobody remarked that his humour was 'out of sight'.