School holidays - 2 (Messing about on the river)

We went (en famille) over to Needingworth, near St Ives yesterday afternoon, for a pleasant hour and a half boat trip along the river. It's such a wonderful way to see the wildlife of the river, be that the occasional glimpse of a kingfisher or the more numerous Mute Swans and Canada Geese . Yesterday we also saw a Little Egret, perched in one of the large bushes that crossed the meadows . It only seems a few years ago that I saw my first one, and I can remember the excitement at seeing it. They still give me a thrill, with their exotic whiteness, and are reminiscent of African plains, in my mind. I've yet to see one riding atop a cow, but that would almost make the picture complete. What a success story they seem to have been.
Floating along the river is also a great way to see damselflies and dragonflies, even if stopping to have a closer look is not always that easy. I didn't realise that I had seen this Small Red-eyed Damselfly until I had a look at the photo afterwards . There were plenty of the beautiful Banded Demoiselles flitting around the water's edge, and Common Blues too, and a couple of larger dragonflies motored past at one point.
As it was a lovely sunny day, the two older boys decided that they would love to get more than just their toes wet. As they had come totally unprepared for such revelry, they decided that rather than skinny dipping, their undies would serve as swimming trunks and their life jackets would now prove more than simply an inconvenience. They knew far better than to worry about the cold, the wetness, the lack of towels, not to mention the depth and so bravery led the first one to drag himself over the edge and into the water. To describe his entry as a dip would be stretching it somewhat, but as the water reached his waist he was shouting to be dragged back in. Unperturbed, the second one decided that he was braver still and over he went. At least the water reached his chest, but as his knuckles grew whiter, and his shouts of "Dad! Help!" grew more convincing he too was dragged, as ceremoniously as possible, back into the boat. The words "I told you so" never crossed my lips, but neither of them decided to venture back into the water.
A few Flowering Rushes were interspersed amongst the riverside vegetation, along with Yellow Water Lilies and Purple Loosestrife. A couple of Common Terns patrolled the river as we headed back to the Pike & Eel, and a solitary heron, almost hidden by the side of the river, slowly flapped away as we passed close by, but too soon to get the camera ready. A final kingfisher in the distance proved elusive and so we returned past the swans and geese for a welcome drink before heading home.