Pasta Time

Christchurch - Forest of Dean

I've been out all morning with little to show for my efforts other than some distant images of male and female Crossbils eventually calling time as the rain set in. So there I am stood at the kitchen window preparing some pasta and I spot a bird sat on the fence, it's a Red legged not what you would expect and another great garden tick following on from a belter male Sparrow Hawk recently.

Panic, the camera gear is all packed away so I grab the first thing to hand the 100-400mm and get some shots through the window not really that good in the poor light and to add the glass has some reflection, chancing my luck I open the patio door just wide enough to get the lens through and rattle off a load of images, with no sign of the bird moving I decide to get the big white.

I now have the 500mm together with the 1.4 ext on the end always a bit big to swing about and get a stable image, I manage to manoeuvre a swivel chair in to position to use as a rest with the lens now extending through the open door, the bird seems content just to sit on the fence and shoot at speeds as low as 250/sec which is a bonus in the grey light

The rain is relentless, probably why the bird just sits and remains motionless on the fence balancing like some acrobat performer from the Cerc de Soleil only occasionally moving to shake the water droplets off its back or looking skywards when a Buzzard lands in the tree close by. Evenly the partridge crouches then lunches itself in to the air to disappear in the direction of the Yat Rock, I'm happy to have recorded this unusual encounter, especially in the dry !

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