Spotting a Spotted Redshank
There are a couple of Spotted Redshanks close by. I take a hasty photograph and smile at the acrobatic leg stretching:
There’s space in front of me to lie down so I can get a photograph closer to their level and I’m shocked at how much my view is transformed:
It’s a much more immediate and intimate portrait from a lower level and the compression of all those water ripples makes the shot more compelling. I wish I hadn’t found that out as I’m now going to have to lie down all the time for my photographs of waterbirds. I’m going to need elbow patches on all my jumpers now.
What beautiful birds they are:
They are found in the UK as passage visitors and the entire winter population could fit on a double-decker bus with only a few left standing, although why they would get on a bus, where they would be going, and how they would pay the fare are still a mystery to me.