When the drizzle stopped and the sun peaked out for a while late this afternoon I pondered where I might find somewhere to play at being a photographer.
Bushy Ruff is normally a good bet. There's always something to see. The Sun had already dipped below some of the trees and although some areas were still in sunshine some where deep in shade. One of the birds I want to bet close enough to, to get some good portrait shots is a Mistle Thrush and while I was at Bushy Ruff one sang almost continuously from high in the trees, never within range of the camera.
There were one or two noisily braying Dabchicks out on the water, but the majority of birds were Mallards, with Coots and Moorhens making up the bulk.
As usual in a park one or two of the "Mallard" types had some strange genes making them the comic farmyard ducks of cartoons.
In the bushes there was quite a lot of activity as a large flock of Long-tailed Tits seemed to be gathering to go to roost nearby.
They were joined by lesser numbers of Great and Blue Tits and several Goldcrests, but try as I may I couldn't find anything unusual amongst them.
I hadn't dropped my camera in the water here, but I did try as low an angle as possible to see what affect I could get get on the water, taking into the light as the sun sinks is always challenging and I'm never too sure whether it's worked or not.
As the sun got lower I heard the familiar call of a Grey Wagtail and it was still feeding along the edge of the wall by the weir. Remarkably it didn't wag its tail too much in the 1/20th of a second the shutter was open. Considering it's a 400mm lens I was surprised it wasn't a complete blur.
Even later arrivals, from the depths of the bushes in the water on the far side was the Swan family. I think that this is the family that was on the water in the, formal ornamental, Russel Gardens earlier in the year. I wonder how long the adults will tolerate the young before persuading them to move on?
No comments:
Post a Comment