It's approaching mid-afternoon when I set up at the same location as yesterday, in the hope of photographing the Glossy Ibis that has recently appeared on the marsh, but I'm almost immediately advised by people toting binoculars around their necks that the ibis has flown to nearby Wick fields, so I'm probably going to be out of luck. They wish.
Experience has taught me that patience is the key, and I decide to wait it out - after all, there are several Little Egrets feeding in the distance. Maybe I can photograph them, if they come close enough.
Forty five minutes pass; still no ibis and the egrets are having none of it; they keep their distance of several hundred yards. As the sun dips low in the sky I make the mental note to give it another half hour before calling it a day...and then it's there!
The bird flies in and settles near the distant egrets. At this point I begin to resign myself to the fact that yesterday I had been very lucky. After all, it was unlikely I would get the same photo opportunity that presented itself so conveniently but twenty four hours previous.
How wrong can you be?
This very occasional visitor to our shores proceeded to give a second performance, as if part of a well-rehearsed routine, for those who wished to watch, while several nearby camera shutters begin to fire like machine guns. After a hundred shots or so of more reserved photography I begin to get the feeling that this is no longer such a challenge to capture something so rare on camera. It's too easy! I include this image as it illustrates the quality of the plumage better than the previous post's offering. All the same, I will make repeated visits to the marsh next week, as it is flight shots that I really want. Now, that will be a challenge.
300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR Nikkor and TC-14E II converter. 1/800 second at f/5. -0.33 EV compensation. ISO 640. Monopod.
© 2010
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