Reed warbler

I think I may have missed my métier. When I hear people commenting in tones of disbelief about some wildlife photographer or cameraperson who's said to have spent three months of eight-hour days sitting in a hide, waiting to get a perfect photo or a few seconds of footage of a particular animal or bird, my instinctive reaction is to think Wow! And they get paid for that!!

Sadly, no-one is going to pay an old a middle-aged woman with a dodgy back and slow (though improving) reactions to sit for weeks in a hide waiting for the perfect shot of the particular thing - but even without financial reward (or even cake!), the two hours I spent this afternoon sitting in solitary contentment, gazing across a reed bed and occasionally firing off a burst of shots at a flitting bird, felt to me like time well spent.

I'm posting this reed warbler because they're small and fast, quite well camouflaged, and spend most of their time too deep within the reeds to be photographed - so as you can probably tell, I'm quite pleased with myself for having captured this shot. But if beige isn't your thing, I have other stuff, and I've posted it here. There's a nice gadwall, a pair of in flagrante oystercatchers, a different warbler in a different reed bed, some avocet yoga, and a few other things. The shouty male shoveler might have got the nod on a different night, but shovelers are just a bit too easy to win the smug vote - though I do like his rather smart breeding plumage.

I'm still nursing my back and not risking putting it through a major expedition, but all these birds - and many others - were just forty minutes from home, at the Upton Warren wetlands. So just a minor road trip, but still a very rewarding one.