Given the bird

You don’t know until you try, they say.

Truest thing ever – especially when it comes to bird photography.

Things were quite busy at Christmas and the Canon camera didn’t make an appearance what with the battery charger being buried under a heap in my study. All festive photos and bits of vid were taken with the HTC M8 mobile, which did an excellent job.

Today it was refreshing to have the opportunity to get familiar with the Canon again. There was a smattering of sunshine this morning, fresh birdfood on the table so it seemed a good time to snap some birds.

The tripod and a nice long lens were bound to be a win-win combo weren’t they?

They would have been but I didn’t count on Fat Lily taking an interest in the proceedings. She watched from the kitchen pew as I fixed everything up, got focussed and attached the remote shutter release.

She swiped a mischievous paw at the cable a couple of times to let me know that we could have a *much* better time playing with the cable rather than my intended project.

But I was set on the task. It was like Piccadilly Circus out there on the birdtable.  Blue tits, great tits, a couple of blackbirds and a robin were all taking their fill while goldfinches darted to and fro from the plum tree to the niger tube.

I concealed myself behind the jungly collection of orchids on my kitchen windowsill, (I knew they’d come in handy for something, one day) remote shutter release in hand, door almost closed (quite chilly outside), poised and ready to shoot as they say in proper photographic circles.

Lily exited via the catflap.

Next thing I knew, there was a furry flash across the lawn – and another and another. Lily was dashing skittishly from one side of the lawn to the other like a little bolt of furry lightning.

I’d never seen her doing widths of the lawn before. She wasn’t after any birds. She was pouncing spasmodically on dead leaves. She doesn’t usually bother with that stuff.

There was the slight possibility that she was performing in the hope of making an appearance on You Tube but actually no, this was pure unadulterated sabotage!

Naturally, all the birds scarpered and I had a perfect view of abandoned bird table and feeders.

She continued to caper about until the environment was completely devoid of birds and birdsong and swaggered back into the warmth of the kitchen, looking smug.

I managed to get a few shots of a couple of solitary visitors to the table and the hanging things but frankly, they were a bit rubbish because I’d vastly under-estimated the shutter speed you need for bird photography.

I’ve given myself a “Could do better” for today but I’ve learned some lessons including just how effectively a small tabby cat could give me the bird!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is why my shutter speed needs to be a *lot* faster!  🙂