The Ecstasy And The Agony

Oh, what an afternoon...

Wingwax

Reminds me of an old movie..

Then they got closer..

"Yeah, I think this is my good side"

Waxwing. 0mph, ~40'

Viewing conditions weren't exactly ideal, with the toothy wind and.. interesting locale. The very next pic;

Boo!

Lorry. 60mph, ~10'....

And my camera almost got it sharp.

About a dozen were present, mobile between trees and the bushes in the central reservation of the A38 between British Ceramic Tiles and the china clay place - best viewed from the Teigngrace side - and there were plenty of admirers braving cold and traffic.

I headed on to Yarner, where, after a lovely lunch enjoying the scenery, I met some little tree birds. Most notably, a black and white one with a red crown. Oh hell yes. I stalked him for more than 20 minutes as he busily foraged near the pony pound. On my way in I got some other passing shots;

I was slow, I was quiet, I was careful, and eventually I was in position. There it was, tapping away on a branch, clear shot, quite low down, well-lit... I held my breath as I zoomed the camera in- the bird flew.

What?

Then I heard them, a retired couple came wandering along from the other direction, past me, not a clue what they'd just done.

I prayed for serenity, and She granted me just enough to stay out of prison.

Then, thinking of this moment, I took the shot;

This is not cropped.

Oh the horror, the torment and the woe. And I'd gone from such joy; this was a glorious bird, showing amazingly, just foraging away, being a woodpecker. Getting a DBR level photo would have let me share it with you; thousand words and so on...

I didn't give up; it had gone thattaway and I followed. Because you do.

Then I heard that tapping, stop-start tapping tapping tapping on my chamber doo-, sorry. On a tree.

And I found the bird again.

Up by the reservoir, higher up but there.. And then a lady with a dog, yapping away on her phone [her, not the dog; cream Labs don't yap..] came along...

Still I persevered. And AGAIN there it was, tapping away.. right up in the canopy. 

DON'TSTOPDON'TZOOMJUSTSHOOT!

What do you mean, you can't see it??

It is there. Not entirely in view, true, but you can see a bit of it if you look very very hard... Then before I could get a proper shot, off it flew all of its own accord, kicking in glee as it went.

To add insult to injury, the darn thing then showed up at the car park as I was leaving, and tormented me and two other birders by calling for ages but not showing a feather.

Birds......

Be Seeing You..