The early Thrush

I do like to see, and hear, Thrushes - they remind me of my childhood - when they were a much more common bird than they are now.  We would regularly have a thrush in the garden and Dad would often point the visitor out to me.

This particular Thrush was very visible as it had found a snail and had come out onto a path to try to winkle it from its shell. It did this by violently flicking the snail’s shell against the stoney ground. There was a slight hump in the path between me and the bird which meant that this was the lowest angle I could achieve without cutting off the bird's feet.  In practice my first reaction was to sink down onto the ground to try to get the shot from the ideal low angle but I quickly found that I then had to get back up to kneeling height in order to include the bird's feet.  Fortunately no one else was about to witness my involuntary groaning as I did all this relatively gracelessly  - although the Thrush clearly wondered what was going on.