While driving home, after buying some stuff in the supermarket, I passed by the pond in the neighborhood on the outskirts of my hometown ...
... and I saw plenty of smoke coming from one of the gardens there.
The smoke usually looks pretty good in photographs ...
... so I stopped, and took a walk by the pond.
You can always find some birds in this place.
This time I encountered plenty of seagulls. In this photograph, you can see a pretty large group of Chroicocephalus ridibundus seagulls, while in the previous shot, two juvenile Larus michahellis seagulls are surrounded by the smaller Chroicocephalus ridibundus.
As always, the old goose was also there ...
... and came to greet me when I arrived.
One cormorant was standing in the mud at the edge of the water ...
... and soon ...
... the bird has spread its wings. But not to fly away.
The cormorant has assumed this pose to dry the feathers.
In this photograph, you can see a small black shape among all those white birds.
Two Eurasian jackdaws (Coloeus monedula) were searching for food near the pond. While the other birds were mostly still, these two were always active, always nosing around.
At one point the jackdaws had to pass near the cormorant that looked kind of menacing, a bit like a vulture, in that pose with wings spread wide. For a moment the jackdaws looked like two cautious, sneaky cartoon characters, and that scene looked very cool in the photograph.
Meanwhile, not far from there ...
... the man responsible for the smoke and fire was talking on the mobile phone. I almost wrote mobile home. It happens almost every time I have to write or say "mobile phone".
Here the focus is on the cormorant again. He was, more or less, in the same pose.
When I took another look at the garden, I saw two men there. It looked like they have planted the fire to harvest the smoke.
Here you can see a group of seagulls on the powerline ...
... pretty close to the smoke. After taking this shot ...
... I pointed the camera towards the seagulls close to the water ...
... zoomed in and took these two Chroicocephalus ridibundus portraits.
These two Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were photographed a bit further along the edge of the pond.
The male was meditating. The female was searching for food. Or at least, that's how the scene looked.
When I zoomed on the smoke - garden again, there was nothing new there.
The smoke was forming dense clouds ...
... and those cloud-like formations were slowly dissolving while climbing to the sky. Meanwhile, not far from there ...
... the cormorant has changed the pose and place.
With the feathers completely dry (or just dry enough, I don't know) it was time to scratch the head.
While I was entering the car, ready to drive home, I saw a man on the bicycle pedaling towards me.
The man stopped near the slide for children ...
... to light a cigarette and add more smoke to this smoky post.
AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.