A cunning plan for shooting ducks

Today, in the way of Baldrick, I had a cunning plan. It was cold and sunny again and Gill was away to the supermarket. There was the interminable writing and correcting to do but I thought, what the heck, I'll go with her and try out an idea. I wanted to photograph birds in flight against the sun, get some translucent wing against a bit of bokeh, perhaps - nothing difficult then.

Goldsworth Park Lake is nobbut a stone's throw from the supermarket so we thought we'd walk the dogs there first. I put on t'big lens as the plan came together. The cunning bit was the bag of bread crumbs I'd brought along in my pocket. I thought that instead of chasing after birds I'd bring them to me. The type of bird didn't matter so much but a gull would be good as I wanted to photograph the light through the wings.

Before reaching the bit of the lake directly opposite the sun, however, I was distracted by some ducks and pulled them in with a bit of bread. The three here were part of that crowd. Oh and before that I snapped a cheeky looking Dunnock which Gill thought was a better blip. She might be right.

A little further on I was looking down at the margins and saw a Great Crested Grebe just about to sit on her clutch of eggs. I didn't want to disturb her but crept closer and got a shot or two through the thicket. It seems a bit of an early clutch in this weather. I hope some of them make it.

Now at the far end of the lake I went ahead with the plan. Sadly, it was not without its flaws. The bread worked rather too well as the birds were so close I could barely track them with the long lens. It was like that Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds. Never mind shooting them, I could have batted them out of the sky with the lens.

Two shots were not bad and one of them would have been just the ticket if I hadn't cut the top off one of the gulls. Then there was the sparkly goose head. I really liked that in the well that's something a bit different category. But in the end I went for the three ducks here because I liked them.

Had I had more time (and more bread) I would have tried some different lenses but there was shopping and, oh yes, work to do.

The dunncok, the grebe, the gulls and the sparkly goose head are all here.