The above wonderful photos are from Wikimedia Commons (which I didn't even know existed until about 2 minutes ago!!!) Many thanks to the photographer Jerzy Strzelecki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Redstart
Surprisingly, these topics ARE related. In the past week I have noticed a female Common Redstart in our paddock. Today I saw the male, and was lurking by our (grubby) bedroom window, camera in hand, this morning. Of course, the moment I grabbed the camera was the moment the wretched bird decided it would look for food on the far side of the paddock and then zoom back past me so quickly I couldn't photograph him. They are obviously nesting somewhere in the vicinity of the paddock - a pair used to nest in a cranny in the top of our old cart shed, years back now.
Anyway, I realized it wouldn't have been much of a photo as the windows were disgusting, inside and out, so I have just been trying to clean them. Trying is the operative word here, as they are big old sash windows, and there is a bit in the middle (top half of the bottom sash), which no way can you reach from inside. The bottom half of the top sash requires me to hang out over the window, standing on the inside sill, and hanging on grimly with one hand . . .
So, windows are done, and hopefully I may get to take a suitable photo when the male is lurking again - he was on the Hawthorn bush earlier, right by the stream bank. Watch this space . . .
Isn't that the way... the moment you reach for the camera they are gone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe put out some small yummy treat somewhere you can get a good photo.
cheers, parsnip
That brought back memories BB. We had sash windows when I was a child and I can see my mother now sitting out on the window sill to wash the outside of the window. Lovely bird pics.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have redstarts nesting nearby. I don`t think I have ever seen one in the Forest but we used to sometimes spot one up in the Yorkshire Dales. Beautiful little birds.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it's not just me that has problems photographing birds!
ReplyDeleteThis well-written tale brings up memories of the windows in our hotel in SF where we stayed for several weeks over winter holidays 83-84. I was hanging out into city-space with a cleaning cloth and a sugar-coated grin. I'd been in Oregon's rain forest for the past three months doing EMT school twelve hours a day and needed every photon of sunshine I could get. Inside and out. The birds nearby were the maple syrup on the Bay Area's Belgian waffles.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that wildlife, especially birds, move off just as we point the camera. It wouldn't do to take a photo through my windows as a rule--[why am I always surprised to find them dirty?] Don't like the idea of you hanging out on the sill with a spray bottle and rag--done that and didn't enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to redstarts, always thought they looked like thrushes, as for window glass they should have invented self clean glass a hundred years ago, then we would all be happy!
ReplyDelete