Chris Dale
@chrisdaleoxford
Solicitor who promoted eDiscovery/eDisclosure in England and Wales and elsewhere. Now retired to my photographs of places, birds, and the dog. In Oxford.
You might quibble with my reference to a "herd" of swans, but the standard term "bevy" doesn't really do justice to this group of about 50 of them.
Elsewhere on the meadow are large herds of cattle, ponies, and swans. This evening, we had this end almost to ourselves.
As balance for yesterday's cormorant, here's one (perhaps the same one) dressed to impress in April.
Nothing stirred at the allotments. Pretty things in every direction, but no people
On my own for a week, so the catering lacks its usual style. Serving suggestion for a hot day: break up a white Magnum, add fresh strawberries, and eat immediately.
After a slow start, this has become a good year for swifts here. A sudden crowd appeared from an empty sky this morning.
The streets, the meadow, the river, and the sky are nearly empty. The only thing that's full is Norman's mouth, which holds two tennis balls.
The Church of St Margaret of Antioch at Binsey by the Thames. It seems rural and remote, but the A34 traffic thunders past, and it is within walking distance of Oxford.
A camera making sure that Cranmer doesn't do a runner. I suspect it's put there to catch minor traffic offenders by someone indifferent to its ugliness. Is it really difficult to reconcile security with the preservation of visual charm?
Up too late for the Port Meadow savannah with a black dog in this heat. He does not appreciate just sitting by the pond in the shade, but I do.
A distant bird. Could have been pigeon, crow, anything. Closer and closer. Kestrel? No - wrong flight pattern. Right overhead before I decided it was a sparrowhawk.
This week in 2024. Red kite in aerial combat with a tern. Neither was hurt, but the kite made some drama out of it.
While swallows raced up the river beside me this morning, swifts whistled by overhead. There was a skylark as well, just out of camera range.
Back in April 2025, the terns were young and in love, and he brought her a large fish as a token of his admiration. Now it all looks rather frosty.
Hard to be sure, but I think this is a male tern failing to impress his lady by turning up with his mouth open but no fish to offer.