Nuthatch

I'm posting this because I've never been so close to a nuthatch before, and because they're quite tricky to photograph, on account of the fact that they're in almost constant motion. Which makes it the most notable event of my photographic day. But it's not my best, or even probably my favourite photo from my visit to Hillers bird hide this afternoon - the great tit, robin, and dunnock shots I've put together in a post on Facebook are all technically better images.

R and I managed to time our trip out for lunch between the morning's rain and a drenching downpour later in the afternoon, and when I first arrived at the hide the light wasn't bad. But but by the time I took this shot the storm clouds were rolling in and it was darkening by the second - this is an accurate representation of what I was seeing as I peered through the gloom. As soon as I was confident that I had a set of focused shots I went and rejoined R for coffee, hoping that the little chaps would still manage to feed for a while without me there to scare off the voracious pheasants and squirrels.