At the end of a day's twitching

We had a lovely day out at Al and Liz's again today. The main objective was to spot kingfishers at the RSPB reserve at Rye Meads. Alas, although there were many sightings that day, the kingfishers did not appear in the hour or so we were in the hide. This fellow was in the hide, complete with those huge lenses, giving the impression of some sort of rocket assistance. Note the subdued colours of his clothers. This must be what marks out a twitcher and probably why I never see any interesting birds. I'm dressed more brightly than the birds I'm trying to look at.

We did feel rather inadequate in the lens department with many people sporting rather large and sometimes very expensive lens on front of their cameras. My bridge camera and Susan's new compact don't quite cut the mustard in this company. Mind you, if the birds don't turn up, then no amount of fancy lenses are going to get you a shot! We did see a heron though and a couple of coots were doing a floor show in front of the hide to entertain the patiently waiting snappers.

One chap got very excited about a rather impressive caterpiller - I think he said it was a elephant hawkshead moth caterpiller. This chap was rather excited about lots of things much to the chargin of most of the occupants of the hide who rolled their eyes as if to say, why will he not shut up!

But the absence of kingfishers did not spoil an excellent day, good company and good food (mostly from Al and Liz's allotment) and good conversation. Even the long journey home, though countless speed restrictions and roadworks could not spoil the day