Making my Day Unique

Nature Spot – linked to Friendly Friday

So, just yesterday, my good friend Donald (not that one, another one) said “Why don’t we go to the pond at the park and take some bird photos?…… socially distanced, of course”. It may not sound a truly attractive suggestion but in the middle of lock-down when we’re not supposed to go out of our local area, it seemed a good idea just to get out the house.

When I arrived I immediately spotted two other photographers with long lenses, and other guys looking through binoculars. That never happened before.
When I found Donnie on the other side of the pond, I asked him what was going on.

“Well, I’ve heard there’s a Long-tailed Duck in the pond”

“Pardon!! A duck. What does it look like?”

” I guess it looks like a duck. I’ve heard it’s quite a small duck. But it’s hard to see because it spends most of its time under water.”

Later research has since revealed to me that Long-tailed Ducks are sea ducks and are most are found way up off the coast in the North of Scotland and as far north as the Shetland Islands. So basically, a sighting of one of these in Ayrshire is rare, and basically this poor wee duck was lost.

One of the guys with the binoculars pointed it out to us, and we then had to wait till it re-surfaced to get some shots of it – and so we did.

It spends 10 seconds on the surface then dives for food, disappears and resurfaces somewhere else about 90 seconds later – Dive, Eat, Surface, Repeat!!

Here it is preparing to dive

Doing the Shimmy

Giving me a wink!

This lovely wee duck with poor navigational skills had attracted quite a lot of attention. And that was my unique experience for yesterday.

It really helps me to identify at least something unique that happens every day. I should try to do this every day, especially just now as lock-downs tend to make every day seem the same and weeks go by in a flash. Picking out at least one thing unique for each day and writing it down helps so much to make each day special. Doesn’t need to be an ‘experience’, just something you saw, something you learned……anything. Hopefully they will be good things not bad.

So today …….

It’s my son’s birthday today. He lives in Edinburgh and we had an on-line birthday party for him, including my daughter, her husband and children at their home. My grandson played the violin for his uncle. “What do we do with a drunken sailor?” Granddaughter dancing. Amazing! That’s pretty unique for me!

May all your daily unique ‘things’ be good ones. – Here’s the duck:-

This post is linked to Sandy’s Friendly-Friday Photo Challenge – Unique.
Thanks Sandy for setting the Challenge