Finchingfield Pond, 2016

Finchingfield was on my list of places to record, and having a reputation of being one of the most picturesque villages in Essex, I was looking forward to spending some time there. Most of the photos I have seen are of the pond and surrounding green and buildings, so that’s where I headed first. I sat on a bench opposite The Fox and made myself comfortable.

There was a fair bit of traffic using the narrow bridge but I tried to tune that out so that I could listen in to the goslings and ducklings away to my left. But as luck would have it, over the next 20 minutes they slowly picked and pecked their way past me towards the water, and perhaps on their way to ‘Duck End’. All the time they were making small noises, to each other, to themselves, and at one point mother goose started to hiss at me. I used to work with birds so knew that if I didn’t show her my eyes, and stayed very still then she would relax a bit and move along, as she did. I enjoyed the moment a lot, just listening to their tiny sounds and hearing that I was surrounded by probably 20 or so birds, and no people.