Usksider's Photo Blog

I don't know about you, but I still think of the lion as the King of Beasts... it's one of those childhood things that has stuck with me through my life.

Birds on the other hand are a different matter. For me the King of the Birds is the Andean Condor, but I'm well aware that to many people it's our own native swan that site atop the regal stack. The Queen of course is allowed to eat swans, so I suppose that pushes them up the list a bit.

I've posted a couple of images from the Magor Marsh Reserve recently, so I thought I'd take the opportunity of showing you a couple of denizens of the Magor Deeps.

They may not be condors, but these are certainly beautiful birds.

Cute aren't they?

There are any number of drainage ditches in my neck of the woods... they make wonderful refuges for local wildlife and afford the casual watcher the chance to observe animals and birds others may never experience.

I never tire of walking along these drainage ditches, or rheens as we know them in Wales. One thing bothers me though... I've yet to come across the little boy with his finger stuck in a dyke... I'm obviously looking in all the wrong places!

Sometimes I just can't resist getting into my own photographs... arrogance... vanity... your choice...

So anyway there I was walking around the Magor Marsh Reserve the other day and when the opportunity arose I thought to myself, what the hell, why not

So here I am, walking around the reed beds....

Four in the morning and for lack of anything more interesting I find myself sitting here with the Emmerdale Omnibus...

Abandon hope all ye who enter here....