Sticky fingers

There are days when the birds just sit up and beg to be snapped and you just can't get it right. Yesterday was such a day. I had chances to photograph some decent birds and missed the best one, so ably snapped by John H.

Nonetheless a decent potter about was had and I discovered some new sites to explore.

Here are the only half decent pics from yesterday:







The Hawfinch or Coccothraustes coccothraustes to his friends was a difficult bird to put it mildly. High up in the tree, obscured by twigs and against the light. A most imperfect combination on a dull, grey, warmish day. The Black-naped monarch, Hypothymis azurea, so ably captured by John (see his blog) simply would not cooperate with me. Each time I pressed the shutter I ended up with a blank screen as it flew faster than I could react. A small bird in a large expanse of foliage, moving quickly, when you are working with an 800mm lens trying to find the blighter, is a real challenge. The fact that several others managed it doesn't console me much! Ditto the cuckoo-shrike. I had a couple of good opportunities before it moved back into the leaves and I was just too slow. Exposure wrong, lens focused on wrong branch...... just a duffer's day for yours truly. The flowerpecker is a real cutie, Dicaeum cruentatum, and this is a big crop as this was a 9cm bird in the top of the tree and very small in frame, even with the bazooka.

So when people say "gosh, you must be good" (and they do occasionally) little do they know that for each decent shot there are days of frustration and hundreds of "deletes". That of course is the joy of digital. It costs NOWT to press the shutter. Nowadays I actually press the shutter less often as I become more conscious of composition, size of bird in frame, exposure limitations etc. There are probably a couple of dozen really top-notch pro-amateurs photographing birds in Hong Kong now. I won't name them but they all outshine me but also give me something to aspire to when I retire.

The saddest part of yesterday was finding the remnants of a Painted snipe, Rostratula benghalensis, at Long Valley. John speculated it might be a victim not of H5N1 but moggius domesticus. Pesky creatures. Drown the lot of them, I say. We did see 2 live P.S.s but they were buried deep in the vegetation and deigned not to be photographed. "Another day, another snap, another snipe" as we say in the trade.