Elderflower Jay

I went to Fishers Green in The Lee Valley Park this afternoon with an idea of the photograph I wanted to take. I had seen today's Rachel Carson Google Doodle. It shows her amongst the, mainly aquatic, wildlife that she loved. It is blue on a white background. My idea was to shoot a white bird in flight against the sky and process it with a blue tint. I read Silent Spring about ten years after Carson wrote it. She is widely credited with launching the modern-day environmental movement.

I struggled as it poured with rain. I got a cormorant with a fish in its beak and some beautiful wild orchids. I got this jay just as I was leaving, strangely not far from the hide where I photographed a jay catching a mouse on my first visit to a hide.

I have a blue jay feather in my drawer that my granddaughter and I found. The blue is structural colouration. If the feather were to be crushed the blue would disappear.