This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “fur and feathers” was chosen by Margaret, The Pocket Rocket.
Anyone who follows my photo stream will know that it does not generally feature birds or animals. This is because I am usually too slow, and my little Canon point-and-shoot is not really designed for such things. I am better with more stationary subjects. However, on occasion I strike it lucky.
The left-hand photo was taken on my birthday in September last year when I was walking through the Fitzroy Gardens. I was near the Dolphin Fountain, photographing the daffodil and jonquil plantings when I watched an Australian wood duck family: drake, hen and eight baby ducklings, emerge from the pond around the fountain. They went foraging for food in the lawns for a little bit. Then Mummy Duck quacked, and all her ducklings gathered in a pile and snuggled up together for a snooze in the sun. Mummy Duck sat down and snoozed lightly with her brood whilst Daddy Drake snoozed more deeply a little further away at a respectable distance. Every time Mummy Duck heard a noise, she would pop up her head. I respectfully kept my distance and snapped quite a few photos of them before some rather loud Asian tourists charged over to see the duck family, and Mummy Duck and Daddy Drake hurried their family back into the relative safety of the Dolphin Fountain pond, much to the tourists’ dismay, and my amusement!
The right-hand photo I took just the other week when I went on my day off to my local post office to pop some gifts for overseas into the post. There were quite a few people in our small post office, so I waited outside for it to empty a little. I was kept company by this ‘fashionable oodle’ (there are so many varieties these days that I’m not sure what type of oodle it is) who was waiting for her owners to come out and take her on her walk. She was very cute, very friendly and very excited! I liked her a lot!
