The snipes are generally ALMOST fooled by the camo net – but only almost. So as soon as I start wriggling around to get the lens pointed at them they tend to walk off. Click to enlarge.

My idea with this blog entry is to remind myself, and anyone else who cares to read, that not every outing can promise to deliver when we deal with flighty (!) subjects like birds.

I got up at some ungodly hour to check out the local meadow, and was there at daybreak with my long lens, my therm-a-rest and my camo net. There’s much more water now than the last time I was there (when the sea eagle shots happened) so finding a good spot proved tricky. In the end I had to move closer to the water’s edge because from my low vantage point I had too much vegetation obstructing the views, and that put off the local wildlife more than I would have liked. In any case, the birds kept their distance, except for some snipes and herons.

At one point a snipe just about pierced my left ear when it took flight to escape a foraging sparrowhawk. The hawk landed right next to me but off at an angle, and bolted when I tried to point the big lens at it from under my very unsubstantial camo net. And speaking of snipes, this year is by far the greatest common snipe year I have seen in my ‘hood yet – right from the early spring there were snipes just about everywhere.

So the morning turned into a snipe-and-heron experience – not a bad thing, but since there was no light I was operating at impossible ISO settings. Two bird images turned out alright, as well as one “artsy” flower shot

With little light to play with, the ISO setting must be high. This leads to more noise than I appreciate, but I rather like this one all the same. Click to enlarge.

I don’t do enough non-bird shooting, because I find it hard to determine the quality of an “artsy” shot like this one. On the other hand I really like this shot, so there must be something to it. Click to enlarge.