THE FEATHERED POND SAGA - Episode 5 : ON A GLOOMY DAY ... for Feathered Friends Friday :)

Dipped into the permanent twilight ...

... the pond looks mysterious ...

... slightly displaced from reality ...

... and Little white egrets (Egretta garzetta) ...

... are dancing around its banks ...

... like ethereal feathered ghosts ...

... or swarming souls ...

... in the liquid center ...

... of some undiscovered mythological place ...

... lost in the depths ...

... of the vast afterlife landscapes ...

... far beyond ...

... the deepest dreams.

He, he ... I got carried away by the dark atmosphere a bit too much ... we are at the same old pond, and these are some ordinary, very biological birds ...

... they are here for fishing ... and all this dramatic display of otherworldly elegance that you just saw ... is there just because they have to catch a small fish from time to time.

This planet is a fabulous place :)

Another thing I can tell you about these Egrets ...

... is ...

... that they are here not only as a pseudo - poetic overture.

They will be the absolute protagonists ...

... throughout the whole episode ...

... until the end of the post.

In these crepuscular conditions ...

... under the fat layer of dark clouds ...

... their beautiful white plumage ...

... was the only feathered thing to contrast the gloomy surroundings ...

... and look good on photograph.

I made just a few shots of other birds ... here is a Cormorant, the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) ... drying the wings in the humid air ... and the Eurasian coot (Fulica atra) is swimming into the camera. The water from this angle wasn't so dark, so I could make a relatively decent shot with these dark birds.

Here the cormorant just went out of the water and is shaking his feathers. Looks a bit like a dog after the bath while doing it.

Here are some Common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in flight ... photographed against the cloudy sky ...

... and here you can see the same bunch of birds flying in a GIF.

On this photograph the coot is resting between the cattail plants at the edge of the water ...

... on this GIF the cormorant is grooming the feathers while the coot is passing by ...

... and on this one, you can see the Egret and the Cormorant hunting side by side.

Here is another cormorant ... this one is swimming across the pond.

On one of the surrounding tree I saw a few Eurasian magpies (Pica pica) ... and I took a few shots ...

... so they also have a short appearance in this episode.

While photographing the setting ...

... the pond itself ...

... I included this park bench ... for the same reason I included all those Egrets in so many poses ... because is bright white and looks great in the gloom.

And now ...

... with this pair of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) ...

... and few more Egrets resting on a willow tree ... is time to end this post ... as always in these posts on Steemit, all the photographs are made by me.