Saturday 7 October 2023

A brief flirtation

The Stonechats are still here, although we are down to four. They've mostly been showing really well as I've walked past during the week, and earlier this morning I discovered why. Because during the week I've not had a camera.

Last night I retrieved the camera from a dark, forgotten corner and dusted it down. I charged the battery up, put on the converter, attached the strap and put it by the front door with my binoculars. Tomorrow those Stonechats were going to get papped.

To cut a long story short, this morning the Stonechats cottoned onto my camera before I'd even switched it on and morphed from the incredibly showy birds they had been last week into contrarian little bastards. There is no other explanation for this morning's behaviour, I couldn't get anywhere near them whereas on Tuesday I'd almost had to back away from them. And then just to really rub it in they vanished for almost the entire period of nice light, reappearing just as it became a little harsh. I reverted to birding, it's easier.

Here are the best I got from a total of perhaps ten images, and they are substantial crops as you can probably tell. All I can say is that last week I would have had the best photos of local Stonechats I'd ever taken. I plodded off to one of the ponds instead but my heart wasn't in it and I came home shortly afterwards. Bird photography eh?




No comments:

Post a Comment