Choices

I had to make a difficult choice for my blip today. Let me tell you the story.

I went down to the river, planning to sit in the same spot for a couple of hours to see what came along. As I pulled onto the car park on the little quay, I noticed a bird of prey emerge from the trees on the other side of the river. 'Buzzard' I thought at first glance; but on looking again, it was much lighter and the wings were narrower.

Before I had worked out what it might be, I was out of the car, opening the boot and putting the telephoto lens onto the camera. By the time I'd done this and switched the camera on, the bird was not as close as it had been. Several shots later, it flew off downstream and when I checked what I had got, it confirmed my suspicions - it was an osprey!

So, pretty elated, I walked a short way along the path and set my chair up and for the next couple of hours or so, took pictures of the egrets as they fished a bit downriver from where I was sitting. Then, blow me down, but the osprey reappeared! More shots of it soaring over the water, until it flew off - upriver this time.

I decided to go round the rest of the walk, so packed the chair away and slung it over my shoulder. I debated going back to the car to drop the chair off, but decided to carry it round the walk. It was just as well that I did, as a few minutes later another bird of prey flew up the river and this time it was a peregrine falcon. More rapid shooting ensued and I got a few good shots as it circled and before it flew off out of sight.

I floated round the rest of the walk - peregrine falcons and ospreys spotted within minutes of each other. Things don't really get much better than that.

So I had a choice of what to blip. I went for the osprey, as we only see them down here when they are on passage - I saw the last one about four years ago.

Hope you enjoy the picture.