I saw birdies! Answered

Potayto, potahto. It depends what you're looking for, and where you're looking. I'm lucky to have a lot of good sites within a day's drive, including several dedicated reserves.

I sometimes see more interesting sites by accident then by searching. I remember one time on the way home from the grocer's, my wife DEMANDED that I pull over and go back up the road a piece. I protested all the way to the next light (about 3/4 of a block), but then gave in. I turned up into the side street where she had seen something, but wouldn't tell me what (later I found out she didn't know what it was).
As I slowly came back the road, along side the road and on the other side (I was driving on the British side so as not to scare him/her away) was a beautiful young Golden Eagle eating a vole. We must have sat there, just half the width of the road away from it, for about 5 minutes or more, when we noticed people from the gas station nearby were starting to wonder what we were looking at. Fearing too great a crowd might interrupt the creature's lunch, we moved on. But I will never forget just how beautiful he was. I looked him up online to make sure and yes, it was a young Golden Eagle, How I would love to see him fully grown now. And he was so near to the city too.

O!

I am just glad I finally gave in to my wife's insistence :-)

_{^{I have probably mentioned that story before, haven't I?}}

_{^{Not to me.}}

Ah, that's where you go wrong - you should stand_{(out in the blasting snow at several degrees below zero, having trouble standing still enough to see straight...)}

... You sir, are barmy.

And proud of it!

If I'd disturbed the seal, the gull would have left, and I would have had all my knees broken by people with expensive binoculars.

"all"? Fascinating...

He has no elbows...

xD

LOL I missed that one on first reading ^{_{so he has more then 2 knees, eh, I wonder what planet....oh never mind.}} ;-)

_{^{Hook, line and sinker... ;-)}}

:-)

There were a flock of over a hundred further up the coast, but they wouldn't settle for a photo (there were dog-walkers in the area). This one was supposed to be with a flock of 40, but only 4 came out to play. It came within about 10 feet, but was such a twitchy thing, it's a pain to get a sharp image.

I'll bet, even with a really fast camera. But you did a really good job of it.

...eventually. That's the joy of digital, though - you can keep shooting away until you get it right.

...or, if you are like me, until the batteries go dead LOL

This is me, Kiteman, posting about a trip with my father (Kitedad?).

Roger-X finds birdwatching boring, and would have absolutely hated this trip, stood in a howling gale on the beach (I had to shelter behind a WWII pill-box to keep the camera steady enough to take the picture of the gull).

Ah, he doesn't know what he is missing in life then :-) Maybe later on he'll understand...

Ah, but where's the challenge? The WHSmith images don't move, react, or display unusual behaviours (like the kestrel we found sheltered on a low fence - kestrels never use low fences as perches), and they don't have that delicious chance of something that shouldn't be there.

_{^{Trying to find a "black" Brent goose in a flock of "normal" Brent geese is a challenge on a par with doing a "Where's Wally?" with a woolly hat pulled down over your eyes, since "normal" Brents are also black...}}

Oh, you're talking about the birds! I was thinking of the customers :-)