I went back to the marsh this morning at around 9.30. We had experienced an unusually early season frost. The ground was still frozen over, in it’s self unusual for us here even deep in to winter. The sky was bright and clear with 100% visibility. All in all a beautiful crisp clear English morning. As I walked towards the brambles and the Stonechat territory I was pleased to see the bird was yet again on her favourite perch and I prepared my camera equipment to put my plan in to action. I have a remote radio shutter release which can operate at 30 mtrs and the plan was to set the camera a few feet from the bird’s preferred perch, pre-focus the camera on manual and then detach myself to a safe distance. That way I would be able to get a shot at just a few feet away without upsetting the subject.
The only thing was, the Stonechat decided not to conform and immediately flew off to another of her favourite spots, the other bush 25 yards away! So I sat it out and played the waiting game. I seem to be able to find some patience from some where so it wasn’t hard as I was well dressed and warm and it was incredibly peaceful and pleasant. To my utter surprise a Reed Bunting flew in and landed in exactly the proper place, right on the spot. So I quickly pressed the remote camera release repeatedly until it flew off after around 20 seconds or so. All the while she, sure it is a hen, was calling continuously. I could hardly wait to see the results because dont forget I have no way of knowing for sure if it had been successful. Glad to say it was and here are the results.

If you have a look at the Stonechat photos from yesterday you can clearly see that the birds are in exactly the same place. I am slightly disappointed at the sharpness around the head but I know for the future how I can correct t this. All in all a great experiment that worked will. It’s good when a plan works out to fruition.

Back at my Chinese Scooter parked in the lane I was just getting myself sorted when I was joined almost literally by a Goldcrest. It was “working” the tree about 3 foot from me and I had a smashing look at it, they are a lovely little bird. The beak is so pointed and sharp and I love the colour of the back. I was very pleased to see one again so close, it’s been a while but the second I have seen this week. I quickly tried for a snap and this was the only one that I managed. I am not putting it in to my gallery because it is not of a good enough quality but if you double click on it you will be able to view it a bit bigger anyway.