Last week, courtesy of one of our readers, I spent a super morning by the river watching and photographing the Great Egret which he had been watching for a number of days. He gave me a call, and so I had the pleasure of witnessing it myself. Unwittingly, on my last photograph of the day, (I didn’t know until I had downloaded my pictures from my camera much later) that as I captured it in flight, I had also managed to get in the picture a Great Blue Heron too! Wow! What are the chances of that!? Getting a comparison of the two in one picture, I was really pleased! Despite being on the “Otter” side of the river, I managed to get some really good shots of it as it patiently hunted for fish and frogs in the reeds, with the occasional flight to a better patch.
You are probably wondering why my spelling of “other” has taken a slip and “Otter” substituted instead!? Well birds were not the only thing to appear that day because, as I braced myself against a pole to steady my camera’s telephoto lens to get the bird pictures, I happened to glance to my left as some hedgerow birds flitted past. At the same time, another movement caught my eye and, low and behold, there was an Otter coming towards me! Gosh! More excitement as it approached and almost stepped on my feet as it passed and then disappeared into the nearby reeds. I desperately wanted to get my camera off its tripod to get a picture of it close-up, but had the dilemma of making too much noise and movement and scaring it off, so had to stay still and just enjoy the very brief moments while it was still in view! I tried to get a glimpse of it swimming in the reeds once it had entered the water, and had freed my camera, but to no avail.
Disappointment at not getting a picture of the Otter was soon forgotten, as the birds on the berries in the hedgerow were still within view, so my attention was drawn to them once again. My pictures allowed me to get both a front and a side and back view of them, so I am concluding that they were Yellow Rumped Warblers.
Well, as you can see, I have had a pretty exciting time over the past few days and I hope you continue to do so, as the migratory birds pass through the area. Enjoy and stay safe and well.
Cheers,
John Baldwin
