LOCKDOWN LETTERS

5^th March 2021

Friday

Our local stretch of the  Regents Canal between St Pancras Way and            Royal College St widens out briefly and a narrow barrier, on which water fowl like to perch, separates the main course from a shallow section where bushes and reeds offer cover for nesting.   Canada geese, coots and moorhens are the most frequent occupants but also mallards and, more rarely, a solitary swan or heron.   Occasionally cormorants will visit, mostly alone but I have seen as many as three lined up on the barrier airing their wings.

Today there are two, surely a couple, in their breeding plumage with flashes of white, necking and displaying courting behaviour.   Three  young women also pause to watch and then two older ladies.   A few yards along the towpath a small group of men clap and cheer as the  male spreads his wings and beats them energetically.   With the women we speculate how lovely it would be if they were to stay and breed here.

After weeks of isolation these few brief moments of interaction with  three disparate groups of strangers leaves me feeling as uplifted as          if I’d been at a rock concert.